The father of the 31-year-old junior doctor raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital alleged on Wednesday night that they were pressured to cremate her in a hurry even though they did not want that.
"We wanted to keep her body. But there was so much pressure on us. We were sitting in front of Tallah police station for an hour and about 300-400 police personnel surrounded us and created such a situation that we were almost forced to return home," he said.
Hundreds of police personnel surrounded their home and they had no option, the girl’s father told a candlelight vigil called by junior doctors at RG Kar hospital.
“When we returned home, we saw that 300-400 policemen had barricaded our house. The circumstances were such that we were left with nothing more to do. We were forced to cremate our daughter’s body,” he said.
A relative said that the family was “pushed aside and the body was taken away”.
The father of the junior doctor said that the fee for his daughter’s cremation was waived. “Who did that? We don’t know that till today. She must have thought even in death that her father could not spend that little amount for her. How heartbreaking that day was for me,” he said.
The father alleged that the deputy commissioner (north) of Kolkata Police had “offered money” to them even while they were grieving, moments after they returned home from the hospital.
“DC north entered our house and offered us money. We told him what we had to. DC central Indira Mukherjee is continuously holding press meetings and telling lies. What is the reason for that?” he said.
Asked for a reaction, a senior Kolkata Police officer shared a video in which the victim’s parents are purportedly saying they have no allegation about the police offering money. The officer refused to speak on record.
A relative later alleged that the police had asked them to sign a white sheet of paper. “The police said that we would get busy and so we should sign a white paper. We refused,” the relative told the candlelight vigil.
The father also questioned the delay in conducting the post-mortem.
“The post-mortem should have been done by 5pm but it started after 6pm. Why? I lodged an FIR at Tallah police station between 6.30pm and 7pm but it was registered after 11.45pm, we learnt later. So many doctors were present but the police made an unnatural death case. Neither the hospital nor the police lodged an FIR,” he said.
“Who will answer my questions? The police, the administration, Swasthya Bhavan, or the hospital authorities?” the father asked.
He also urged ordinary citizens to offer evidence of the crime should they have it.
He thanked the student community for the resistance they have put up in the wake of the brutality.
“I would request everyone that till the day I don’t get justice for my daughter, till that day they should be beside me and continue this movement,” the mother said.