Kolkota Doctor Rape and Murder and Cover Ups by the State

In a total inversion of the principle “Of the People, By the people, For the people” the principle that is the Bedrock of democracy Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had hit the streets flanked by a whole bunch of TMC supporters, her party women some of whom are MP legislators.

What’s truly astonishing is that she’s protesting against her own government’s failures as Head of the State. Mamata Banerjee is responsible for the very lapses that compromise the investigation, her administration’s ineptitude has been exposed completely and yet she chooses to march for justice seeking to deflect accountability.

This is not solidarity, it’s a political stunt. A desperate attempt to shift the spotlight from her government’s shortcomings to a symbolic show of outrage. The victim deserved justice not a photo opportunity, the family deserved support not a political spectacle, the state deserved accountability not a chief minister trying to save face.

Mamta Banerjee’s march is a shameful attempt to abandon the victim once again. It’s a betrayal of the Public’s trust and a mockery of justice system. The people need true accountability not political posturing. Instead of  being swayed by political posturing, what is required is real action and not symbolic gestures.

Over the last few days spontaneous protests have broken out across the state and not just across the state, across the country, women and men, mostly women are out either reclaiming their night or standing in solidarity with Bengal’s Abhaya demanding justice.

These are leaderless, purely apolitical agitations, doctors are out there, teachers are are out, engineers are out there, students are out there, sisters are out there, grandmothers are out, friends and relatives are out there and they’re out there because they are united by one concern which is that women in Bengal are not safe.

Meanwhile Mamata Banerjee is competing to outshout the very women who put her in power there. A politician can be seen turning on those who they’re answerable to. She has moved beyond a point where she could at least empathize with the indignity and suffering that a young daughter in Bengal had to face.

She is a deemed autocrat or tyrant judging from her reaction to the legitimate demand of women protesters. And there have been multiple attempts to cover up the case. It was first described as suicide. What is also shocking was the room besides the crime spot was demolished in an obvious attempt to brush the case under the carpet.

And then why were 40-50 doctors and nurses transferred in a hurry? What is the CM trying to hide?

After attempts by Trinamool to brush the case under the carpet, Kolkata High Court intervened. Kolkata High Court Chief Justice had ordered a court monitored CBI probe. The High Court said that it had grave doubts about the sufficiency of the ongoing probe by the state police.

The court also frowned on the shocking  reassignment of Dr. Sandip Ghosh as the Principal of Kolkata National Medical College and Hospital after being relieved of the charge at R.G. Kar. That too he was reassigned within 4 hours after he resigned.

The Kolkata High Court also said “How dare Sandip Ghosh blame the victim?” Sandip Ghosh, The Principal had said what was the need for Abhaya to go to the seminar room between 3 pm and 5 pm.

An independent authority the High Court was appalled by the audacity of the rampaging mob, that at the stroke of the Midnight Hour on August 15th tore down the gates of the R. G. Kar Hospital and destroyed CCTVs and by some accounts were there to destroy the crime scene and any left evidence.

Not just that they also tried to disrupt a peaceful march of women. The phrase “Freedom at the stroke of the Midnight” has come to assume completely different interpretations in Bengal. High Court tore into the Mamta Administration stating that the police usually have Intelligence on these matters if they are competent.

Kolkata High Court Chief Justice slammed the West Bengal State Government over the vandalism that took place at the R. G. Kar College. The emergency ward, nursing station, medicine store and parts of the outpatient department of the hospital were vandalised by miscreants on Thursday i.e. 15th August.

The Kolkata High Court, on hearing a petition on the vandalism, called it “an absolute failure of State machinery”. Kolkata police thereafter arrested 19 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Those arrested were remanded to police custody by a city court till August 22.

However, only one person has been arrested for the murder of Abhaya. The only accused in the case so far is Sanjoy Roy who was operating as a member of the Kolkata Police, wearing clothes having Police insignia on it.

How civic volunteers in Kolkata are masquerading as Police officers and running racquets inside Government Hospitals taking money from relatives and patients? And the Police had thereafter ceased investigations to nab the other culprits of this heinous crime!

And furthermore, this does not look like an assault by one person. Analysts have stated that there is the possibility of several people being involved in this brutal gang rape and murder going by the quantity of fluid (semen) found in her body and other findings in the autopsy report.

Lady doctors and nurses and their parents have stated that they will be now be worried especially if they are being assigned night duty. And what is worse is that the conviction rate is only 2.7% in West Bengal when it is crime against women. The Governor of West Bengal too has raised serious concern on the sorry state of affairs in Bengal.

This case though has drawn widespread attention due to the brutal nature of the crime and the subsequent tardy investigation by the state police. The entire nation demands #justiceforAbhaya. And this case is not restricted to Kolkata anymore. The clamour for justice grows louder.

It’s as much a push for securing justice as it is to seek some assurances in the hope that the system wakes up. This is the unvarnished voice of the people.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday detained Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, for questioning in the August 9 alleged rape and murder of the 31-year-old junior doctor at the hospital’s chest department, where she was on duty, officials of the federal agency said.

Ghosh was grilled alongside Dr Arunava Dutta Chowdhury, who took charge as head of the chest department on August 1, and the hospital’s former superintendent, Dr Sanjay Vashisth, who, like Ghosh, was transferred after the crime. Dutta Chowdhury and Vashisth were questioned for more than eight hours on Thursday as well.

As CBI has taken over the case the onus for justice now lies on CBI. What are the new details of the case? Which new issues is the CBI focusing on? We will find out answers to these questions and more. Stay tuned…

Indicators of suspected cover up attempts in the case –

• Parents were informed that their daughter committed suicide when it is a case of gang rape and murder! And these are doctors! And they could not figure out if it was suicide or murder!
• Parents were made to wait for 3 long hours before they were even allowed to see the dead body of their child. (Time enough to tamper with the body and remove evidence.)
• Parents were offered money by the police to hush up the matter.
• The nexus is clearly visible as the Principal of R. G. Kar Sandip Ghosh was appointed Principal of another college within 4 hours of resigning instead of he being suspended.
• The evidence was tampered by allowing demolition and renovation at the  place of occurrence (PO) of the crime.
• Why was the police reluctant to file an FIR? And why is the police statement not matching with the findings of the post mortem/autopsy report?
• It is also being stated that the viscera of the deceased victim doctor has been changed by the Kolkata Police in the name of investigation.
• Why did Mamata Banerjee delay handing over the investigation to CBI? So that the state police could remove any possible trace of evidence.
• Why were 40-50 doctors and nurses transferred in a hurry? These were mostly those doctors and nurses who were a part of the protest. And we learn that they are now being reinstated after public pressure!
• How could the hooligans create ruckus and harm a peaceful protest in the presence of the police without the support of the state machinery? While enough police personnel were present prior to the vandalism, why was the force reduced or withdrawn at the time of vandalism?
• ‘Not a simple case of gang rape and murder’: Was Kolkata doctor trying to expose something big? Such as the trafficking of human body parts.
• Whose profit is it if the place was vandalized? And why did the police wait for more than 40 minutes and let the place be vandalized?
• Why are media houses and people who demand justice for Abhaya being sent notices by the police in Bengal?

The Kolkata High Court had to intervene to stop any further cover up attempts by the Mamata Government.