Doctors across Calcutta said they were shocked, scared and outraged after a young trainee doctor was found dead in the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta with injury marks suggesting sexual assault.
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she wanted “exemplary punishment” given to the perpetrators of the “unpardonable crime”.
“I want the case to be fast tracked” the chief minister said on a phone interview with ABP Ananda on Saturday, demanding capital punishment.
The medical community’s pain is not just about the loss of a colleague, but the realisation they are not safe anymore.
“I’m shocked... I'm yet to process this,” Dr. Soutaj Biswas, an ex student and a close friend of the victim, at RG Kar, told The Telegraph Online. “A doctor was raped and murdered in her own institution. What does this say about our safety?”
The body of the postgraduate trainee doctor had many injury marks, as per the findings of the initial autopsy. The inquest report has a list of 10 injuries on the body, from the eyes to the ankles. The report states that the victim was bleeding from eyes, mouth and private parts.
The report does not mention the cause of the injuries and whether the victim had been sexually assaulted. One person, a civic volunteer, has been arrested in the case.
“What happened here was unprecedented, even in a country like ours where rape has been normalised,” Biswas said, shaken with anxiety.
The incident has sparked protests across hospitals in Kolkata. Inside RG Kar, the incident has ignited a sense of mistrust and confusion.
“I am with them. Their claims are valid,” chief minister Banerjee said when asked about the protests.
Dr Ayan Basak, an ex-student, refused to absolve the authorities of responsibility.
"The authorities were constantly trying to hide facts and refusing to do the re-post mortem in the presence of a magistrate,” Basak claimed. “Don’t you think they have their interests invested in this?"
Dr. Shams Mushafir, a trainee doctor from RG Kar Medical College, who was on duty that night told The Telegraph Online: “We demand a proper judicial inquiry. The post-mortem procedure was shady.”
Young women doctors across the city are scared.
Two female students from RG Kar, who requested anonymity, shared their thoughts with The Telegraph Online.
“We often face manhandling in the wards and there’s no security. We’re afraid to walk through the corridors at night,” said one trainee doctor.
The city’s medical community, including veteran doctors, expressed shock.
"I'm scared to let my son or daughter take up mainstream medicine," said Dr Yogesh Mishra of Calcutta Medical College. “This incident has made me rethink everything. This case is the first in the city where an on-duty doctor has been raped. It’s heartbreaking.”
The fallout isn’t confined to RG Kar. Students at Jagannath Gupta Medical College (JGMC) and other institutions across Kolkata are speaking out, sharing their fears and frustrations.
“Things are better in private colleges”, a student from JGMC told The Telegraph Online. “But emergency wards are often sites of violence. There are unspoken rules in the medical community that contribute to a lack of safety or transparency. This must change.”
Student activist and dental surgeon Dr. Anuran Pal from Calcutta Medical College made his frustration evident: “We always knew the risks of working in a government hospital — the lack of security, the endless hours. But we never imagined this.”
Dr. Arjun Dasgupta, an ENT surgeon, expressed his outrage stating this simply as a brutal rape and murder case.
“The various doctor’s groups, including West Bengal Doctors Forum and Doctors for Democracy, will together see the end of this,” Dasgupta told The Telegraph Online. "Why was there no duty room? Why did this happen in a place that should have been safe for her?”
Dr Kamaleswar Mukherjee, a doctor-turned-director and former student of Calcutta Medical College, said he had full solidarity with the protesters.
“If those securing the lives of patients are not safe, what will happen to the patients?” he questioned.
A junior medico at RG Kar said the victim “taught us how to manage the emergency ward; I can’t believe she’s gone.”
