Calcutta high court on Friday questioned how doctors will work without fear when the city police can’t protect their own men.

A bench led by chief justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharya on Friday took up the matter of the midnight vandalism at RG kar Medical College and Hospital and restricted access to the crime scene where a young postgraduate trainee doctor was brutally raped and murdered.

The CJI said the incidents of vandalism during the protest marches across the city points to an “absolute failure of state machinery” as it is “hard to believe” that 7,000 people walked in without any police intelligence.

The state counsel admitted that 15 cops were injured, including a deputy commissioner who had serious injuries. The miscreants also vandalised the Emergency ward and damaged police vehicles.

Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, appearing for one of the petitioners, reminded the court that the authority demolished a part of the crime scene three hours after the court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the rape and murder case.

“We will close down the hospital. We will shift everyone. Close the hospital. How many patients are there?” the bench asked.

On Tuesday, the Calcutta high court had ordered a CBI inquiry into the case and asked the former principal Sandip Ghosh to go on long leave.

The next hearing of the case is next Wednesday. The bench ordered the CBI to file a progress report on the case in the next hearing.