Authorities must protect protesters demanding justice after the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital case, Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday on what the human rights organisation called the “gang-rape and murder of Kolkata doctor”.

Police have arrested one person, a civic volunteer named Sanjoy Roy, in the case that drew ordinary people in the hundreds of thousands to Reclaim The Night as the clock turned to August 15, 2024.

The parents of the victim in their petition to Calcutta high court have said that they suspect their daughter was gang-raped. There has been no official confirmation but Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal told the media early on Thursday that they had never said that no one else was involved.

Even as the many protests demanded justice peacefully, a band of goons entered RG kar Hospital and went on a rampage resulting in pitched battles with the cops involving stones and sticks. Many policemen were injured.

Amnesty called it “the violent attacks yesterday by an unidentified gang on protesters who were demonstrating against the heinous gang-rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata in India”. ,

“The shocking attack and intimidation of peaceful protesters who were only demanding justice for the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata is despicable,” Aakar Patel, chair of board at Amnesty International India, was quoted as saying.

“The authorities have an obligation to facilitate the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to protect protesters from abuse, including from non-State actors, such as unwarranted interference or violence by other members of the public or counterdemonstrators. Leaving unaddressed these attempts to hinder the ability of the population to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly will only increase the frustration and anger towards the authorities.

“We urge the authorities to ensure that those responsible for the attack on peaceful protesters are held accountable and brought to justice in fair trials,” he added.

“Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as the leading agency on the case, must conduct a swift, thorough, impartial and independent investigation into the horrific rape and murder of the female doctor at RG Kar Medical college and hospital in Kolkata. Undue delays in the investigation will further the climate of fear, impunity and uncertainty.”