National Strike: Protests have surged across India following a tragic incident in West Bengal, where a female trainee doctor was raped and murdered, leading to extensive damage at a hospital. On Wednesday, the RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata was attacked during the large Reclaim the Night march, a demonstration held to protest the horrific crime. This march saw tens of thousands of women demanding freedom from fear and violence.
While the protests in Kolkata were largely peaceful, tensions escalated when a group of unidentified men stormed the hospital, vandalizing the emergency ward and damaging medical equipment. Videos circulating online depicted the destruction, including men using sticks to smash beds and other hospital property. During the chaos, some hospital staff and doctors were injured, and police vehicles were also damaged. Tear gas was used to control the situation, leading to the arrest of 19 individuals by Kolkata police.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest organization of doctors in the country, has condemned the violence and announced a nationwide strike of non-emergency services set for Saturday. The IMA criticized the attack as “hooliganism” and emphasized the need for enhanced safety measures for doctors in hospitals.
In response, other doctors’ associations, including the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (Forda), have resumed their strike. This action follows the temporary suspension of their protest after federal Health Minister JP Nadda promised to address their demands, including the implementation of a federal law to prevent attacks on doctors.The incident has also ignited a political controversy in West Bengal, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) of orchestrating the attack. The TMC has denied these claims, attributing the violence to “political outsiders.”The rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor have deeply shocked the nation. Her body, found with severe injuries in a seminar hall, has led to the arrest of a hospital volunteer. This incident follows two other high-profile rape cases in National strike: a nurse in Uttarakhand, who was found murdered after going missing in July, and a teenage Dalit girl in Bihar, who was gang-raped and killed, with six individuals arrested in connection with her death.
CBI Intensifies Probe into Former RG Kar Principal Sandip Ghosh Amid Claims That Murdered Doctor Was 'Under Pressure'
Faced with accusations of illicit activities and a potential racket operating from the hospital, the agency is urgently working to reconstruct the events that culminated in the brutal murder.
The noose seems to be tightening to allover Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital, after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) decided him for questioning on Friday afternoon. Ghosh resigned from RG Kar on August 12 Bounded by the allegations of a racket being run from the hospital where a 31-year-old doctor was found raped and murdered.
Ghosh was picked up by CBI after the Calcutta High Court suggested him to appear before the agency. His questioning at CBI CGO Complex office in Salt Lake went on for more than eight hours. His former colleagues — Arunava Dutta Chowdhury, head of the chest department, and Dr Sanjay Vashisth, the former of the superintendent of RH Kar — were also questioned by the CBI team. The agency, so far, has questioned about 30 people, including doctors, PG students, HoDs, and staff members. On Friday night, security guards, ward boys and nurses were called.Speaking to the media ahead of his questioning on Saturday, Ghosh said: “The news of my arrest is wrong. I don’t know take to court for sanjay Roy. No encounter has happened.”
CBI is questioning the hospital management and staff to piece along with the sequence of events that led to the sadistica killing of the doctor. “We are looking at all the features of the case,” a CBI officer said when asked if complaints of underhand dealing in RG Kar were also under the scanner.
Family members of the departure have told CBI that the victim was under pressure at RG Kar. Now the CBI wants the Ghosh to answer if he was awake of that why the victim was feeling pressured and if there was any complaint made to the college commands to regarding as the pressure that she was facing.Security for doctors and patients, use of the seminar hall — where the crime happened — and overall the management of the hospital are all queries that the CBI team is seeking to the answers.
A 31-year-old civic volunteer Sanjay Roy has been arrested by the police for reportedly raping and killing the victim but her family and colleagues are unsatisfied with the police probe. CBI is waiting for the forensic and DNA reports to finalize if there was more than one person involved in the discarseble crime.
Kolkata rape-murder: 'Transfer' of 42 Bengal doctors sparks row, BJP slams CM Mamata Banerjee
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday picout West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for reportedly moving on senior doctors and professors, alleging that the move has added to the difficult situation in the state i the middle of protests over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor at Kolkata RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Resident doctors and medical students across the city’s government hospital staged a protest against the alleged rape and killing of a woman doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Mumbai. (AP)
Resident doctors and medical students across the city’s government hospital staged a protest against the alleged rape and killing of a woman doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Mumbai. (AP)
In the 42 doctors two of them who were moved on, Dr. Sangeeta Paul and Dr. Supriya Das were earlier stationed at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the trainee doctor’s semi-naked body was found on August 9.
Reacting to the state government’s orders, Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT Cell,assumed that Mamata Banerjee is picout on Medical College Kolkata and Calcutta National Medical College, which he claimed are the focus of protests against her “fascist regime.”