Thursday, 19 September 2024
Thursday, 19 September 2024
The replica of an intact human spine was one of the most powerful visuals that emerged during the junior doctors’ protest on Tuesday against the role of the Kolkata Police and its commissioner Vineet Goyal in the investigation and aftermath of the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital that has shaken Calcutta and the country.
The delegation of doctors that was finally allowed to meet Calcutta’s top cop placed the spine on the desk of Vineet Goyal, the police commissioner, in a gesture that stands out in the history of the 168-year-old force that had once lorded over the former capital of British India, both under the East India Company and Queen Victoria.
The protesting doctors want Goyal, who has been at the helm of the Kolkata Police for nearly three years now, one of the longest stints in recent history, to resign.
“We gifted an artificial spinal cord, so that he [Goyal] can build his own one and work as an administrator, an IPS,” Devalina Bose, a student of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, told The Telegraph Online.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s government and leaders of her Trinamul have maintained that the Kolkata Police did not do anything wrong in the RG Kar case. Why, then, is there anger among the doctors at the cops? The Telegraph Online tries to draw up a list why the Kolkata Police need to be reminded of the existence of the spine.
Reason 1: Why did police give Sandip Ghosh a free pass?
The special investigation team of the Kolkata Police set up to probe the rape and murder did not even record the statement of – forget about interrogating – Sandip Ghosh, who was the principal when the rape and murder happened.
His reported proximity to Bengal’s ruling party is the subject of discussion all over Bengal.
Ghosh has now been arrested by the CBI in a corruption case. The CBI did what the police could not, is what the protesting doctors said.
“I think the police have failed in every aspect to fulfil their responsibility,” Anubhab Saha, an intern of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, said. “They failed to prevent the heinous crime from happening in the first place. They failed in the investigation. They failed to protect the crime scene. They failed to preserve crucial evidence. They failed in preventing evidence tampering. They failed to protect the protesting doctors from mob attack. They throw teargas inside the boys’ main hostel, RGKMCH. They are not cooperating with the CISF and so on. As a whole they failed in every aspect.”
Reason 2: Why is the timeline of events in the RG Kar rape and murder still hazy?
Twenty-six days since the 31-year-old doctor’s body was found in the seminar hall of the Chest department of the government-run teaching hospital, the timeline of events is still not clear. This was pointed out in court by Supreme Court judges during the second hearing on the case that the apex court has taken up suo motu (on its own).
Why was the FIR lodged at 11.45 pm, four-and-half hours after the post-mortem was conducted? Why was the post-mortem conducted at the same hospital where the victim was found raped and murdered? What was the reason for rushing with the post mortem that same evening, even before the FIR was lodged?
The complaint letter given by the victim’s father does not mention the time when it was lodged. If the letter was submitted earlier, why did the police wait to lodge the formal FIR till close to midnight?
The officer-in-charge of the Tala police station could have lodged the FIR suo motu since the parents had to travel from outside Calcutta and took time to reach. Why did the cops decide to wait for the parents? Why did Ghosh not lodge an FIR as the head of the institute?
Why are the police pointing to the parents for the delays? Are grief-stricken parents meant to know protocol and procedure in criminal cases and adhere to them when their daughter has been found raped and murdered at her place of work where she was on 36-hour duty?
If this is not abdication of responsibility and lack of spine, what is?
Reason 3: Why was there a rush to get rid of the body of the RG Kar victim?
A question that has been raised by many people, including the victims’ parents and student protesters who created a ruckus at RG Kar that helped the incident snowball, is about the seeming hurry of the police to get rid of the body.
Why did the cops rush with the body to be cremated the same night?
“We went to the hospital and wanted to talk to the parents for two minutes,” said DYFI leader Kalatan Dasgupta, who along with Meenakshi Mukherjee and other members of the Left’s student organisation were at the hospital on the evening of August 9.
“The cops pushed us and fled with the vehicle. By the time we ran to the gate of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the vehicle was nowhere in sight. We felt there was something suspicious in the way the cops behaved that night,” he added.
This charge has found its place in the victim’s parents’ anguished letter to President Droupadi Murmu as well. They have said they wanted to preserve the body but the police rushed them.
In many criminal cases, second autopsies have revealed what first post-mortem reports did not. In this case, there is no chance of that happening.
Reason 4: The 40-foot riddle: Why were there so many people at the crime scene?
Another recurring charge at the Kolkata Police is of not securing the crime scene. Why was the seminar hall on the third floor of the emergency building where the doctor’s corpse was found not sealed till all the evidence was collected and bagged?
Who decided to allow an undefined number of people inside the room? Who were these people? The Kolkata Police have claimed that it had sealed a 40-foot area where the body was found, while the crowd was in an 11-foot area outside.
The pictures that the police have shared flies in the face of their claims that the cordoned off area was 40 feet and the people were outside in an 11-foot area.
A senior police officer had in a media conference pointed to people at the crime scene and identified them as experts and police personnel. Soon after, the Indian Medical Association’s West Bengal chapter had pointed out that the person the cops claimed was a fingerprint expert was actually a junior doctor who is part of the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad.
The Trinamul’s student wing has suspended the doctor from its membership after that.
Reason 5: Questions about civic volunteers
The civic volunteer Sanjay Roy is the lone arrest in the case so far. He was arrested by the Kolkata Police.
Why was Roy allowed to ride a Kolkata Police bike, stay in the barracks of the fourth battalion and have access to all the wards despite having previous complaints of drunken behavior?
Why was Roy allowed to crisscross Kolkata on a police bike while drunk as reported widely? What does it say about the police force?
Reason 6: Why did police fail to prevent the mob attack on RG Kar?
The protesting doctors are furious that Kolkata Police did not come to their aid on the eve of Independence Day when a mob attacked RG Kar Medical College and Hospital amid an unprecedented and peaceful citizens’ protest against the rape-murder horror.
The Bengal government’s lawyer, Kapil Sibal, told the Supreme Court that a mob of 7,000 had attacked and vandalized a part of the hospital, beaten up doctors and the on-duty cops.
Commissioner Goyal had rushed the same night to the hospital and made an angry speech accusing the media of spreading a malicious campaign against his force. The doctors have taken his statements with lumps of salt.
“On the day of the mob attack, we suffered from a teargas attack. We closed the doors of the rooms and our windows, some of which had no tight seal. We had to wash our eyes, face and nose with running water. We really suffered that day. Somehow the news was spread that the mob is going to attack our boys’ hostel which was spread in our Whatsapp groups which has all the members and even our college TMC goons,” Dr Anubhab Saha told The Telegraph Online.
The doctors also pointed out that to stop their peaceful protest from reaching Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police had set up impressive barricades, something that was conspicuously missing from RG Kar Medical College & Hospital on the night of August 14.
“Policeeri toh sob kota bhul [All the fault is of the police],” Dr Anudrita Baral, a housestaff at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, told The Telegraph Online. “Yesterday [Tuesday] to stop us at Lalbazar there were 9-foot-tall barricades. There were five to six layers of barricades tied with ropes and chains. I am sure this arrangement would have been possible at RG Kar as well. Why was it not done? This is the most illogical thing ever! A crime has been committed in our college, even when the police knew this, they did not stop further crimes. Isn't this the work of the police? To stop crime? Where is the work? There is no work done by the Kolkata Police. I want to know what their job is.”
