The Constitutional Conduct Group of former civil servants has hit out at the Bengal government over chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s response to the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The open letter is endorsed by former Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former foreign secretaries Shivshankar Menon and Sujatha Singh, Bengal’s former state election commissioner Mira Pande, ex-chief secretary Ardhendu Sen and former DGP A.K. Samanta. The group has often been critical of the Modi government.

The former bureaucrats said in the letter: “You are the head of the State Government of Bengal as well as Minister for the Home and Health Departments. Therefore, it was for you and your officers to take steps to prevent the commission of the crime or solve it quickly before the CBI stepped in. What is the point, then, in your leading protest marches? Who or what are you protesting against?

CISF personnel at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Thursday. Gautam Bose

“We are also puzzled by your saying that the enquiry by the CBI should be completed by Sunday, August 18, and the guilty persons should be hanged. This is obviously playing to the gallery since you know as well as anyone else that an investigation of such a serious crime cannot be completed in a few days.”

They highlighted eight points of concern, reproduced verbatim:

• It is widely rumoured that a racket, involving sex, drugs, human organs and medical waste was being run in the RG Kar hospital and that the unfortunate victim of this case had reported these facts to her seniors, but no action was taken. If this is a wild allegation maliciously reported in a section of the media, why has it not been appropriately countered by the state government?

• Why was the rape and murder of the junior doctor reported to her parents in instalments, first as illness, then as death, then as suicide, and only finally as a case of rape and murder? Kolkata Police have denied that they had told the parents that it was a case of suicide; if so, who did?

• The principal of the college should have contacted the family and lodged the FIR. Not only did he not do this, he wanted to know why the doctor on duty had gone to sleep in the seminar room, knowing fully well that there was no place for the doctors on duty to rest at night.

• Why was the principal of RG Kar Medical College transferred from the college only to be accommodated as the principal of another prestigious medical college in Calcutta?

• The parents of the murdered junior doctor seem to have reported that other junior doctors were complicit in this rape-murder. If true, it is a very, very serious matter and the strictest action needs to be taken against these doctors as well to prevent the possibility of anything like this happening in the future.

• It seems that the junior doctors have specifically asked for action to be taken against the following medical college personnel: the former principal, the medical superintendent, the dean of students affairs and the HOD of the chest medicine department. Why have they singled out these personnel?

• We are aware that RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is a prestigious institution, and more than a hundred years old. Why is it that its infrastructure and facilities continue to be so very poor? What has the state government done to maintain the infrastructure and provide better facilities and safety in this hospital, or to get central funds for this?

• Why were the hospital premises, the scene of such a heinous crime, left unprotected by the police resulting in the destruction of many areas a few days later by vandals who had apparently infiltrated the protest groups? The scene of the crime along with whatever evidence it contained could have been destroyed. It was fortunate that it was not.