Junior doctors have called for a “people’s march” on Saturday, November 9, asking citizens to take to the streets again to seek justice for the RG Kar rape-and-murder victim.
It will be three months since the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
“Ninety days of injustice. People in Bengal’s cities, villages, towns and on the roads are crying out loud for justice, but even on the 90th day, there is no justice for her,” Kinjal Nanda, a junior doctor and one of the faces of the medics’ protest, said in a video post on social media, calling for the “people’s march”.
The march will start from College Square at 3pm and end at Esplanade, Nanda said.
“We have raised questions about the speed of the investigation because the probe by the country’s highest investigating agency leaves room for many questions. On the other hand, the threat culture is again trying to establish its stranglehold on campuses. In this situation, to demand justice... to demand clarifications on the doubts about the investigation, to reclaim people’s right to health, to get rid of the threat culture on campuses and to continue the democratic protest, we have given this call for the march... from the factory to the farm... from the hospitals to the streets...” said Nanda.
“We will not leave the protest or the streets unless we get justice.”
“We are disheartened by the repeated postponements of the hearing (on the RG Kar case) at the Supreme Court. In an issue as sensitive as this, when the entire country is expecting justice to be delivered, especially when the Supreme Court has taken the case
suo motu, the multiple postponements are disappointing,” said Anustup Mukherjee, a junior doctor at Medical College Kolkata.
The case was heard at the Supreme Court on Thursday after being deferred for two consecutive days.
“We do not understand the legalities. We are looking forward to the proceedings at the sessions court (the trial court),” he said.
Another protesting junior doctor, Trinesh Mondol, said they hoped the Supreme Court would ask the CBI to speed up the investigation.
“It has been three months since the heinous crime took place but we are yet to know about the motive of the rape and murder,” he said.
Sayantani Ghosh Hazra, one of the junior doctors who was on hunger strike at Esplanade that had continued for 17 days, said that not just the doctors, but people from all sections of society have joined the protest.
“We have called for the people’s march because we feel every citizen is answerable to the parents of the junior doctor who was raped and murdered and to ensure that such a heinous crime does not recur,” she said.
