An appeal from the Chief Justice of India to junior doctors on Tuesday to “resume work” failed to move them.

The protesting junior doctors at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital were not ready on Tuesday to withdraw their cease-work because they said there was no clarity yet on the progress of the probe into the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee and the real culprits might still be wandering free.

The junior doctors said seven days have passed since the CBI was handed the probe into the rape and murder but they have no knowledge about the progress of the investigation.

Calcutta High Court took the investigation away from Kolkata Police and handed it to the central agency on August 13.

At the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud requested the protesting junior doctors to resume work.

“We will request all the doctors who are abstaining from work across the country to resume work at the earliest. Above all, the abstention from work of doctors affects those segments of the society who need medical care the most from accessing health related services,” the CJI said in the courtroom.

“The abstaining doctors and medical professionals stand assured that their concerns are receiving the highest concern from the Supreme Court of India,” he said.

The bench also included Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

The Supreme Court also asked the CBI to file a status report on the progress of investigation on Thursday.

The protesting doctors at RG Kar put up a giant screen near their protest site to watch the live telecast of the hearing at the Supreme Court.

A little later they announced that their cease-work would continue.

“We welcome the Supreme Court’s order to the CBI to file a status report on Thursday. But we want to say that 11 days have passed since the doctor was raped and murdered but only one person has so far been arrested. The CBI took over the probe seven days
ago and we do not have any information about the progress of the probe,” said a junior doctor.

“Does the CBI think the arrested civic volunteer is the only culprit or does it have reasons to believe that more than one person was involved in the crime?” another junior doctor asked.

The junior doctors have been saying since the start of their cease-work that they suspect that multiple person were involved in the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor. They reiterated the point on Tuesday.

“If more than one person was involved, the culprits may be wandering freely on the hospital campus. What assurance do we have that they will not take revenge on those who have been protesting or that they will not commit such crime again? We want to go back to work but we are concerned about our safety,” said a protesting doctor.

About the apex court’s verbal observations on the deployment of the CISF at
RG Kar, a protester said: “We welcome the Supreme Court’s observations to deploy the CISF. But for how long will the CISF guard the medical college?”

“One of our demands since we started the cease-work is that all medical colleges must have adequate security. What will happen at other medical colleges? Will the CISF guard all medical colleges?” the protester said.