As many as twenty-five people have been reportedly arrested for an attack on Kolkata’s RG Medical College and Hospital on the night of 14th August following the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor. While the police claim that protestors against the incident went violent and attacked the hospital, it has been widely alleged that the mob wanted to destroy evidence of the crime by vandalising the crime scene. Now, a video from the incident seems to have confirmed the allegation.
A video of the incident has been published by ABP Ananda, in which the violent mob that targeted the medical institution can be seen creating a ruckus while someone is heard directing the goons to go to the seminar room where the heinous crime was committed. The person can be heard saying in Bengali, “Let’s go to the s eminar room,” as others continue to wreak havoc on the premises. It seems to suggest that they wanted to vandalise the seminar room to destroy evidence of the crime.
On the other hand, the authorities have claimed that the investigation is underway and they need time to unravel the entire truth. But today the Calcutta High Court transferred the case of the attack also to the CBI.
The malicious crowd descended upon the hospital like a swarm of flies and vandalised the place, burnt police vehicles and assaulted the doctors as the cops took refuge inside the bathrooms and requested help from the nurses. At least eighteen departments including the emergency room, intensive care unit, and high-dependency unit as well as the storage room, male wards, washrooms and even CCTV cameras were broken. As per police, there were around 7000 people in the crowd, and therefore the police were greatly outnumbered.
Notably, Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya informed the Calcutta High Court today during the hearing on the incident that the hooligans wanted to vandalise the crime scene, but they reached the wrong floor due to confusion over the floor number. The seminar room is located on the third floor of the building, and the third floor is called 4th Story (4th Tala) in Bengali. Therefore, they went to the third storey of the building, which is actually the second floor, and vandalised rooms on that floor.
Therefore, the mob attacked the wrong floor while they targeted the seminar room, the lawyer said, adding that this proves that the attack was prearranged to destroy the crime scene and remove any evidence. During the hearing, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government and police were slammed by the court for its abject failure to protect the doctors from the mob.
The state claimed that although police attempted to disperse the crowd, they were unable to prevent the attack as assailants were about 7,000 in number and multiple police officers suffered injuries as a result. When the police and others couldn’t even defend themselves, the court retorted, asking how they would protect the doctors. The court even threatened to close the hospital and move the patients to another facility since it was not satisfied with the administration’s reply. “Normally the police always has an intelligence wing. Similar things happened on Hanuman Jayanti. If 7000 people are to gather, it is hard to believe the state police did not know,” the court pointed out.
“You pass 144 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) orders for any reason and when so much commotion is going on, you should have cordoned the area,” the court stated to which state counsel alleged that the mob had unexpectedly gathered at night. The court then chastised the government and highlighted, “This is an absolute failure of state machinery.”
