Kolkata Horror: Nation cannot await rape or murder for real changes on ground, says SC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the West Bengal Government for a delay in lodging an FIR in the rape and murder case of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, and attempts to pass off the horrific incident as a case of suicide.

“It appears the crime was detected in the early hours… How did the principal try to pass this off as a suicide,” asked a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, which had on Sunday taken suo motu cognisance of the rape and murder of the doctor following a nationwide outrage and protests by doctors.

The Bench, which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, ordered the CBI to submit a status report by Thursday (August 22), the next date of hearing. It also asked the West Bengal Government to furnish a separate status report on the vandalism at the hospital in which peacefully protesting doctors were also targeted.

“This is not just a matter of protecting doctors. Their safety and well-being as health providers is a matter of national interest…The nation cannot await a rape or murder for real changes on the ground,” said the Bench as it formed a national task force (NTF) to formulate a national protocol to ensure the safety of medical professionals. It asked the NTF to submit an interim report in three weeks and the final report in two months.

The top court urged all protesting doctors to resume work as their strike affected health services across India.

The Bench ordered the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to provide security to doctors and other medical professionals at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and its hostels after senior counsel Aparajita Singh submitted on behalf of “Protect the Warriors”, a doctors’ organisation, that almost 90 per cent of the 700 doctors had left the hostel following the August 14-15 midnight vandalism at the hospital. She said only 30-40 female and 60-70 male doctors were left in the hostels.

As the CJI urged the striking doctors to return to work, Aparajita pointed out that after the mid-night vandalism, the mob returned to the medical college and threatened women doctors that they would meet the same fate as that of the rape-murder victim if they complained about the incident. She said the police ran away when the incident took place.

“What are the police doing,” the CJI asked senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who represented the West Bengal Government, expressing serious concern at the mob calling women doctors by their names and threatening that they would meet the same fate as that of the deceased victim. Sibal said the state government had no objection to the top court ordering the deployment of the CISF to provide security at the hospital.

The top court asked the West Bengal Government not to unleash its power on protesters as it was a moment of national catharsis.

The badly injured body of the postgraduate trainee doctor, now being called Abhaya, was found in the seminar room of the hospital on August 9. The Kolkata police initially registered a case of unnatural death and arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, the next day. However, acting on a petition filed by the victim’s parents, the Calcutta High Court on August 13 transferred the probe to the CBI, expressing dissatisfaction over the investigation conducted by the Kolkata police.

“The body was passed to the parents in the evening for cremation. The next day, doctors were protesting and a mob invaded the hospital and critical facilities were damaged. What were the Kolkata police doing? The crime scene is in the hospital. The police have to protect the crime scene. What were they doing,” the CJI asked.