Bengal’s striking junior doctors on Saturday urged everyone to stop work for 30 minutes and come out on the streets at 10am on Monday.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the RG Kar rape and murder case on Monday morning.
The junior doctors said they wanted the Supreme Court to know “a lot of time has passed and the apex court should pronounce something about what the probe has found so far”.
“We have given a call to everyone, irrespective of what they do, to come down on the streets between 10am and 10.30am on Monday. People are requested to stop their work for these 30 minutes,” said Aniket Mahato, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and one of the strike leaders.
“This call has been given so that a word reaches the Supreme Court that people are waiting for justice.... A month has passed since the doctor faced the brutality,” Mahato added.
The junior doctors’ call to hit the streets on Monday follows another call to step out at midnight on Sunday. The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front has named it Abhayar Raat (the night of Abhaya) as it will mark the completion of a month since the gruesome rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
Women’s groups have also called for Reclaim the Night protests on Sunday. They will hit the streets at 11pm, an hour before the junior doctors.
Responding to a global call to form human chains, the junior doctors will also form human chains at different places at 5pm on Sunday.
The junior doctors are pinning hopes on the next Supreme Court hearing to throw up clarity on the progress of the probe into the rape and murder, and the possible motive behind the crime. Clarity on the probe is one of the unmet demands of the junior doctors. The disclosures could open avenues for discussions on whether to end the cease-work that is now a month long.
The case has been listed for hearing by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud at 10.30am on Monday.
The junior doctors have said they want the CBI to tell the court or come out and say in a news conference whether one person or more than one was involved in the crime and what was the motive behind the rape and murder.
“If it was done by one person, let them say that. If more than one person is involved, they should be clear about that. A lot of time has passed without any information about the probe,” said a junior doctor.
A five-member delegation of junior doctors met CBI officers at the CGO complex on August 23 and demanded to know the status of the probe but the sleuths declined to share any information.
The CBI officers said they could not divulge details of an ongoing investigation being monitored by the Supreme Court, one of the protesting doctors had said.
This newspaper has reported quoting multiple CBI sources that the probe has so far not found any evidence to suggest gang-rape. The sources identified the Kolkata Police civic volunteer arrested a day after the August 9 crime as the lone suspect so far. The CBI’s investigation is said to be in its “final stages”.
The junior doctors, who have modified many of their demands since the launch of the cease-work, have now listed five demands:
◉ Identification of all culprits and their arrest, revealing the motive of the crime.
◉ Suspension of Sandip Ghosh (already done by the health department after Ghosh was arrested on corruption charges by the CBI)
◉ Resignation of Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal.
◉ Ensuring the safety of doctors and all healthcare workers.
◉ Ending the reign of fear in medical colleges.