Kolkata doctor rape and murder case: Mamata Banerjee to lead protest rally demanding justice

Prime minister Narendra Modi condemned atrocities against women in his Independence Day address yesterday, calling for stricter punishments for the perpetrators.

“As a society, we have to think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, daughters and sisters. There is outrage against this in the country. I can feel this outrage,” he said.

Police in India recorded 31,516 reports of rape in 2022, a 20 per cent increase from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

The victim’s family alleged they were initially informed by a senior police official over the phone that their daughter had died by suicide.

A relative of the family, who went to the hospital with the doctor’s parents, said they were made to wait outside for three hours.

“The parents pleaded before them (hospital authorities) to show them their daughter’s face. But still, they were made to wait for three hours,” the relative told India Today.

The victim’s father told reporters: “I have turned down compensation. It will hurt my daughter if I accept money as compensation for her death. I want justice.”

The brutal rape and murder of a resident doctor during her 36-hour shift at a prominent state-run hospital in eastern India has led to an outbreak of protests and calls for a nationwide strike.

Protesters demanded “justice for our didi [elder sister]” outside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee was found dead.

The Independent spoke to doctors who unanimously agreed that the facility lacked safety measures for medical workers.

Hundreds and thousands of doctors across government hospitals in India staged a strike earlier this week, seeking justice for the victim and better workplace safety for the medicos.

The pan-India doctors’ strike was in response to a call by the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (Forda) in solidarity with the agitation in Kolkata.

The resident doctors association of the RG Kar Medical College ceased work on the emergency services last week.

The federation demanded the implementation of the central healthcare protection act, which prohibits acts of violence against healthcare service personnel including doctors, nurses, para-medical workers, medical students, and ambulance drivers.

The nationwide strike was called off after two days but the doctors at RG Kar refused to rejoin work.

Protests have erupted across India over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor, who was found dead inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

The victim was last seen after midnight on 9 August before she went to a third-floor seminar hall of the pulmonology department in the emergency building of the hospital during her 36-hour on-call duty.

Her partially naked body with visible marks of abuse was discovered by fellow students after 7am (local time) on Friday.

The local police arrested a civil volunteer associated with the Kolkata Police, Sanjay Roy, and remanded him to 14 days of custody. The suspect has been charged with rape and murder.