Sunday, 19 January 2025
Sunday, 19 January 2025
A CBI special court will on Saturday decide the fate of Sanjay Roy, a Kolkata Police civic volunteer accused in the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The body of the victim was found on August 9 last year.
That a state-run facility could not protect one of its own triggered the anger of the average Calcuttan like no other incident had in the recent past.
Calcutta has been on the streets since then, sometimes for stretches of days and nights, and all sections of the society, from 'celebrities' to students, doctors to astrologers, have participated in protests.
“Just like brushing teeth every morning, joining the marches and sitting to reclaim the night has become our habit. There is no pressure. We will see this to the end,” a protester wrote on his Facebook wall when Calcutta was raging.
Here is a timeline of the incident that has rocked Kolkata, Bengal and India.
August 8, 2024
11.15 pm: The victim speaks with her mother on the phone. The last conversation she has with her family.
August 9, 2024
2am: She is seen entering the “seminar hall” to rest for the night.
9.30am: Two of her colleagues find her unconscious lying on the mattress with external injuries and in a semi-naked condition.
10.10am: The Tala police station receives a call from the outpost at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital of a doctor found lying “unconscious, half-naked” in the seminar hall of the chest department.
10.53am: The assistant superintendent of the hospital informs the victim’s parents over phone that their daughter has taken ill. On the way to the hospital, the parents are told that their daughter has died by suicide.
12noon: The parents reach the hospital and are made to wait in the room of the chest department’s head. By then a large crowd has gathered inside the seminar hall.
3.30pm: Then Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal takes the parents to the scene of crime.
4pm: A judicial magistrate is summoned for conducting the inquest.
6.10pm: The post-mortem is conducted.
8.30pm: The body is cremated.
11.45pm: An FIR is lodged at the Tala police station by the victim’s father.
August 10: Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, is arrested by the Kolkata Police. Roy was caught on CCTV camera entering the seminar hall and a Bluetooth device belonging to him was found near the body. Junior doctors go on cease-work.
August 12: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee meets the parents, says she is ready to hand over the probe to the CBI if the police’s special investigation team is unable to solve the case in seven days. Sandip Ghosh, the principal of RG Kar Medical College, steps down. Mamata says he has been transferred to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital.
August 13: Hearing a bunch of petitions, including one by the victim's parents, a division bench led by Calcutta high court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam orders court-monitored CBI probe. The court orders Ghosh to go on leave.
August 14: The first “Reclaim the Night” protest draws hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in Calcutta and elsewhere. While the protest is on, a mob vandalises the emergency department at RG Kar in full view of television cameras. Policemen are injured. Junior doctors allege evidence has been destroyed.
August 15: Goyal blames rumours and a "malicious" media and social media campaign for eroding public trust in the Kolkata Police.
August 16: CBI interrogates former principal Ghosh.
August 18: Supreme Court takes suo motu cognizance of the case.
August 20: A three-member division bench led by then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud begins hearing, orders a 10-member national task force to suggest measures for safety and security of doctors.
August 24: Lie-detection tests of Sanjay Roy and six others are carried out.
August 27: A BJP-backed protest march to the Bengal state secretariat at Howrah turns violent.
September 2: Junior doctors’ march to Lalbazar is stopped by the cops with guardrails, the young medicos stay on the road overnight with the model of a human spine in a symbolic gesture aimed at the police.
September 9: Supreme Court sets a deadline of 5pm September 10 for the junior doctors to resume duties.
September 10: Junior doctors march to Swasthya Bhawan, the Bengal health department headquarters, and begin a sit-in demonstration demanding resignation of then police commissioner Vineet Goyal, the state health secretary, director of health education, and director of medical education, along with justice for the victim.
September 11: Junior doctors turn down offer to meet chief minister as the government refuses live streaming of the meeting.
September 14: Chief minister reaches out to the protesting doctors at Swasthya Bhawan, asks them to sit for talks at her Harish Chatterjee street residence. Talks fail.
Sandip Ghosh and Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijeet Mondal are arrested by the CBI the same night.
September 16: Mamata meets junior doctors at her residence. Goyal along with two health department officials are removed from their posts.
September 17: Manoj Verma takes charge as Calcutta’s new commissioner of police.
September 20: Junior doctors call off cease-work.
September 27: Attack on medical staff at Sagore Dutta Hospital sparks another round of cease-work.
October 5: Seven junior doctors start indefinite hunger strike at Metro Channel, Esplanade while Calcutta welcomes Goddess Durga for the five-day festival.
October 7: The CBI files chargsheet against Sanjay Roy.
October 15: Protest carnival held in Calcutta while the chief minister presides over the annual Durga Puja carnival on Red Road.
October 19: Chief minister speaks with the junior doctors on hunger strike after chief secretary Manoj Pant and others reach out.
October 21: Mamata meets representatives of the junior doctors at the state secretariat. The junior doctors call off the indefinite hunger strike on the request of the victim’s father.
November 4: Charges framed against the accused.
November 11: Trial begins in the CBI special court.
December 13: Former principal Ghosh and former Tala police station OC Mondal granted bail as CBI fails to submit chargesheet against both in the rape and murder case. Ghosh remains behind bars for an ongoing investigation against him in the corruption case.
December 19: The victim’s parents move Calcutta high court seeking fresh probe. Told to get clarification from the apex court.
December 20: Junior doctors' platform begins sit-in protest at Metro Channel demanding that the CBI file chargesheet against Ghosh and Mondal.
December 31: Protest by the doctors at Metro channel ends.
January 9, 2025: Five months after the rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee, trial ends at the Sealdah court. The CBI seeks the death penalty for the accused.
