Will seek death penalty for accused: Mamata Banerjee on sexual assault, murder of woman doctor
Kolkata, August 10
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asserted that her government will seek death penalty for the accused in the alleged sexual assault and murder of a woman postgraduate trainee doctor.
Banerjee also said she has asked officials to ensure that the case be tried in a fast-track court.
The body of the woman doctor was found inside the seminar hall of a government-run hospital in north Kolkata on Friday.
The chief minister also said the protests and processions by junior doctors demanding exemplary punishment for the accused and enhanced security at hospitals were justified.
“I endorse the demands being made by the junior doctors,” she told a Bengali news channel.
Banerjee said the West Bengal government has no objection to an investigation into the case by any agency, including the CBI, if there is a demand for it.
Describing the incident as gruesome and despicable, she urged the junior doctors at various state-run hospitals to carry on giving healthcare services, while holding the protests.
“I feel like losing someone in my family,” Banerjee said.
The CM said police camps had been set up in every hospital to prevent any assault on doctors.
She also said superintendents/principals of hospitals and medical college hospitals have a responsibility of ensuring internal security at their respective facilities.
“We will also investigate whether there was any negligence on their part,” Banerjee said.
A senior officer said on Saturday that the police have arrested a man, an outsider who had free access to the different departments of the hospital.
“We have arrested one person, who is an outsider. His activities are quite suspicious and he seems to be directly involved in the crime,” the police officer told PTI.
Talking more about the arrested accused, police said that they recovered a torn part of a Bluetooth earphone which led to the culprit.
In fact, other PGTs and female doctors also identified the culprit from CCTV footage grabbed from other parts of the hospital premises, a source in the police department said.
Police officers also claimed that the arrested accused had given different statements during the grilling done.
“Now, we are trying to find out who else was with him or he had someone else with him,” he said, adding that police might conduct necessary medical examinations on him.
Police officers also questioned two intern doctors the entire Friday night in connection with their ongoing probe into the death of the woman doctor, he said.
The deceased, a second-year student of the chest medicine department, was on duty on Thursday night. The body bore injury marks.
Her father had alleged that she was raped and murdered inside Kar Medical College and Hospital and efforts are on to hide the truth.
A preliminary autopsy report has indicated sexual abuse of the woman doctor before she was killed, police said.
Meanwhile, a city court today ordered a 14-day police remand for the accused.
The accused, charged under sections 64 (rape) and 103 (murder) of the BNS, was presented before the Sealdah court after his arrest earlier in the day.
The judge granted the prosecution's request for a 14-day police remand till August 23 for further questioning in connection with the crime.
