On Thursday, 15th August, the body of a young woman with her throat slit was discovered in Shaktigarh in West Bengal’s East Burdwan district, causing panic in the neighborhood. The victim has been identified as Priyanka Hansda (22).
The police began their investigation by filing a complaint of unnatural death. Her body has been sent for postmortem examination. The victim’s family informed the police that the deceased woman worked at a retail center in Bengaluru and had returned home for vacation on August 12th.
They also notified the police that she left her home late Wednesday evening while speaking on her phone with someone. She had been missing since then, and her body, with her throat slit, was eventually recovered.
According to district police officials, an extensive investigation has begun to track down the individuals with whom she was last seen chatting on her mobile phone as she left her home.
The victim’s relatives have informed the media that it is a murder case. They stated that she left the house after receiving a call from someone, and her body was discovered with her throat slit. They also stated that when she had not returned home for quite some time, they attempted to contact her via her phone. But she did not answer their calls.
According to district police, based on the statements recorded in the case, the call that the victim got before leaving home was from someone she knew well.
The matter came to light as the state witnesses protests over the gruesome death of a junior doctor in a state-run hospital in Kolkata on the 12th of August. The Kolkata Police apprehended one individual in connection with the case. The CBI is now investigating the case following the Kolkata High Court’s ruling.
On Wednesday (14th August), a 27-year-old man set fire to his Activa scooter in front of Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru at around 3.30 p.m. The man, identified as Prithviraj M, was discontent with the police for allegedly mistreating his mother. Prithviraj’s actions caused panic on the spot. The police took Prithviraj, a Yeshwanthpur resident, into custody after the incident.
He told the police that he wanted justice against police officers who mistreated his mother while she was visiting different police stations to file a missing-person complaint. The accused who worked at a private company in Bengaluru was reportedly arrested later.
According to the police, Prithviraj had on 1st July gone trekking in Sringeri and other areas of Chikkamagaluru. As his mother was unable to contact him over the phone since Prithviraj’s phone was switched off due to technical reasons, she approached the police station in Challakare, Chitradurga to file a missing person complaint. However, the police did not pay heed to her concerns saying that her son would return soon. After returning, Prithviraj learnt about this and the mother-son duo went to the police station. When Prithviraj asked the police why his mother’s complaint was not registered, the police allegedly abused them.
Reports say that Prithviraj had placed a rope in the petrol tank of his scooter and lit it, sparking the fire in the middle of the road. After this, a fire tender was called from Vidhana Soudha and the fire was brought under control.
“The police did not respond to her properly. Growing more anxious, she came to Bengaluru and visited Yeshwanthpur police station the next day, and they accepted her complaint. On 10th July, I called my mother, saying I was fine. On 21st July, I came to Bengaluru and visited Yeshwanthpur police station. They closed the case and sent me back with my mother. On 23rd July I went to Challakere police station and sought an explanation for ill-treating my mother. Instead of replying, they beat me up in front of my mother. I protested there. I have met many officials, including DSPs of Challakere and Chitradurga, explaining the issue. But nothing came out of all this. Since I was not given justice, I decided to burn my scooter outside Vidhana Soudha so that everyone would watch it and hear me,” he told investigating officers, TOI reported.
When the police arrested him on Wednesday, Prithviraj hurled abuses at the police and said that he set the scooter ablaze as he did not get justice. Meanwhile, the police had booked the man under relevant BNS sections.
The Vice Chancellor of Delhi University on Wednesday (14th August) stated that the University will no longer teach about Poet Muhammad Iqbal who allegedly proposed the division of India and Pakistan through his artwork. VC Yogesh Singh stated that people have a full right to know about Iqbal but not at the cost of unity and togetherness.
The VC, in an event on 14th August, urged the students that they shall not compromise with India’s unity and togetherness, and that they shall stand together against the forces that create a divide between the two communities. He also said that students must learn, and read more about Veer Savarkar, MK Gandhi, Dr BR Ambedkar, and such other leaders who have actually sacrificed their lives fighting for the independence of the nation.
“Iqbal was the person to sow the seeds of partition. He was a close associate of Muhammed Ali Jinnah who later became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. When Iqbal was in Lahore’s Govt College in 1904, he only had written ‘Sare Jaha se acha, Hindustan hamara’, Tarana-e-Hind, but later he only forgot to stand by what he had written,” VC Singh was quoted as saying.
VC Singh further opined that India should be on priority for everyone. No one shall compromise over its values and should work together to make this country a better place. “Students should be taught to fight for the nation, they should stand for the nation,” he said.
He also added that nobody, absolutely nobody, wanted India to get divided into two different countries, but the then leaders also failed to strongly oppose the partition.
Muhammed Iqbal, was one of the most main proponents of the two-nation theory that led to the creation of Pakistan in the first half of the 20th century. Indians know him as the man behind the famous composition ‘Sare Jahaan Se Achcha’ however, for Nehruvian Secularists, Iqbal has come to be regarded as a beacon of unity and tolerance between Hindus and Muslims in India.
The famous composition ‘Sare Jahaan Se Achcha’ was published in 1904 by Muhammad Iqbal, a year before the Partition of Bengal in British India. The most famous lines of the composition say, which form its sixth stanza, “Maẕhab nahīṉ sikhātā āpas meṉ bair rakhnā, Hindī haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai Hindositāṉ hamārā”. Unfortunately, in Independent India, the entire legacy of the Islamic fundamentalist poet has been reduced to these two lines, ignoring almost entirely his contribution to the formation of Pakistan.
In Tarana-e-Milli further, which the poet wrote in 1910 for children, the Islamic fundamentalist nature of Muhammad Iqbal becomes entirely evident. It was composed in the same meter and rhyme scheme as ‘Sare Jahaan Se Achcha’, contradicting the thought of unity in total. The first stanza of this particular composition contrasted sharply with the sixth stanza of his prior composition. It said, “Cīn o-ʿArab hamārā, Hindūstāṉ hamārā, Muslim haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai sārā jahāṉ hamārā”.
The Islamic fundamentalist worldview of Muhammad Iqbal, which contrasts sharply with the image of him being a beacon of communal harmony that has been propped up in India since independence, are more than evident in the words of Tarana-e-Milli. He says, “The treasure of tawhid is in our hearts, It is not easy to wipe out our name and mark. The first house we have liberated from idols is the Ka’abah; We are its custodians, and It is our protector.” Tawhid refers to the concept of Monotheism in Islam. The words seen in unison reflect quite clearly the deep hatred for idolatry and polytheism that Muhammad Iqbal carried in his heart.
It is quite evident that between 1904 and 1910, a radical transformation occurred in the worldview of Muhammad Iqbal. It is believed that it occurred when he left for the United Kingdom for a three-year period. It is then that he supposedly turned into an Islamic fundamentalist which paved the way for him to become a staunch advocate for the creation of Pakistan. Throughout the later stages of his life, Muhammad Iqbal became a passionate advocate for the creation of Pakistan.
In his presidential address at the 25th Annual Session of the All India Muslim League on the 29th of December, 1930, he said, “India is a continent of human beings belonging to different languages and professing different religions…I, therefore, demand the formation of a consolidated Muslim state in the best interests of the Muslims of India and Islam.”
The statement criticizes the reverence for Muhammad Iqbal and his works in India, arguing that any self-respecting country would have discarded them. It suggests that in India, under the guise of secularism, Hindus endure disrespect and face ongoing existential threats since the formation of the Indian Republic. One can indulge in a debate though about whether art can be separated from its creator but these are intellectual luxuries that could ever be entertained only in the absence of imminent existential threats.
Hours after a frenzied mob vandalised the premises of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the nursing staff of the healthcare institution on Thursday (15th August) exposed how police went into hiding instead of confronting the attackers.
A nurse, dressed in white apron, told ABP Ananda, “Emon o hoyeche je unnara bathroom e dhuke boleche je amader lokanor jaiga din (It has happened that the cops entered the bathroom and asked us to provide space to hide).”
“Amader ward e eshe bolche amder lokanor jaiga din (They came to our ward and told us to provide a hideout),” the woman narrated. She confirmed that the cops were hiding instead of stopping vandalism at the hospital.
She was taken aback after being told by the police that her safety was her responsibility.
“Amra jokhon akhon bolchi authority ke emon obostha keno holo, tokhon authority amader bolche – tomader safety tomader haathe (Now when we asked authorities why this happened, they told us that our safety was our responsibility),” the nursing staffer lamented.
Mob attack on RG Kar Medical College and Hospital
On Thursday (15th August) night, a mob of 50-odd men laid siege at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The goons carried out attacks against the protesting doctors demanding justice for the rape and murder of a female trainee doctor.
In videos that have now surfaced on social media, the mob was seen vandalising the hospital premises, damaging police vehicles and physically attacking doctors present there. The attackers were also involved in stone pelting.
According to reports, the mob entered were standing outside the hospital and then suddenly barged into the premises. They broke into the emergency ward of the hospital and destroyed the furniture and medicine stocks.
According to the protesting doctors, the mayhem unleashed by the goons lasted for about an hour. In the meantime, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal has accused online media outlets and social media accounts of instigating the unprovoked attack by the mob.
35-year-old Rehman, son of Ali Mohammad, has been arrested in Rajasthan for giving triple talaq to his wife. He was apprehended from the airport on 12th August, just as he landed in the country. Rehman had divorced his spouse on call from Kuwait and married a Pakistani woman, Mehwish. He met Mehwish on social media and tied the knot in Saudi Arabia. She came to Churu in Rajasthan on a tourist visa last month, where she was warmly received by his family and started living with his parents.
Meanwhile, on 27th July, Rehman’s 29-year-old wife Farida Bano, a resident of Bhadra in Hanumangarh, along with her father, lodged a First Information Report against Rehman for giving triple talaq on the phone. She also complained that Rehman and his family harassed her for dowry and assaulted her. They made repeated demands for either money or a bike. Rehman even told her that he wasn’t going to stay with her for long. As a result, a lookout notice was issued against him as he was in Kuwait at the time.
Hanumangarh police nabbed the accused as soon as he landed at Jaipur Airport. He was first interrogated by the authorities and then he was brought to the police station and the arrest proceedings were initiated the next day. Rehman and Farida Bano got married on 17th March 2011, and have a son and a daughter together. He used to work in the transport sector in Kuwait. The official complaint was registered against him when he took Mehwish to Churu.
Hanumangarh Circle Officer Ranveer Singh stated that Rehman wed Mehwish, a Pakistani woman. His first wife launched a complaint against him in the Bhadra police station of the Hanumangarh district after the matter came to light. She had also hinted that Mehwish might be a Pakistani spy and that there should be an investigation into her. Hanumangarh Deputy Superintendent of Police (Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribes Cell) Ranveer Singh also confirmed that Farida Bano, who has been living with her parents, submitted a complaint against her husband.
Notably, the Modi government enacted a law stating that a divorce cannot be granted by repeating the word “talaq” three times. According to the police, Rehman and his first wife Farida Bano previously had a falling out and additional information will become available as the case is investigated further. Mehwish has a 45-day tourist visa valid for India. Many women who were victims of triple talaq have received justice since the law outlawing came into effect. Muslim males were previously able to divorce their spouses without filing for divorce through triple talaq.
Imagine that a woman was brutally raped and murdered and the state government responsible for ensuring the safety of its residents decides to hold a ‘protest’ to justice for the victim. Sounds outrageously absurd? This exactly is what is happening in West Bengal, wherein Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced protests demanding punishment for the perpetrators of the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. A civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy was arrested in this case and has reportedly confessed to his crime.
Main accused Sanjoy Roy arrested, doctors protest demanding justice for the deceased victim
CM Mamata Banerjee announced that on 17th August, her party will organise a protest march in all the blocks demanding the punishment of the criminal. Then on 18th August, there will be a demonstration in all the blocks and on 19th August, a program to demand capital punishment of the guilty will be organised.
Mamata Banerjee gives ‘deadline’ to CBI amidst mob attacks on protesting doctors
Mamata Banerjee wants the culprit to be hanged and has ‘demanded’ that the CBI to should complete this by Sunday (18th August). The alarming audacity of a sitting chief minister to shift the onus of serving justice to the victim on the central probe agency makes it evident that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is desperately trying to shift the blame on the Centre and wash their hands off their responsibilities. TMC’s political game is so shamelessly impeccable, on one hand, the state government is giving a ‘deadline’ to the CBI, and on the other, has announced a massive protest just a day before the farcical deadline ends.
Police watch as goons arrive by truckloads, vandalise the medical college
Meanwhile, protesting doctors are being assaulted by goons who also vandalised the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital premises on 14th August. The mob comprising over 50 people stormed into the hospital attacking doctors and even tried to enter the building where the junior doctor was raped and murdered while the police remained a mute spectator. It is also alleged that the ruling TMC government orchestrated the attacks.
It looks like the ‘deadline’ for justice has been decided by the state government after much deliberation as the sequence of events suggests that by the time, the CBI investigates the case, most of the evidence will be destroyed and protestors be silenced. With the narrative in control, CM Banerjee will shift the blame of her own incompetence on the Centre saying that the CBI failed to give justice to the deceased victim.
While Mamata Banerjee wants the CBI to hang the culprit by Sunday, her government is accused of protecting those involved in the case. After the semi-nude body of a PG trainee doctor was discovered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on the 9th of August, the hospital management informed her family that she had committed suicide.
The CBI is an investigating body. They cannot decide the punishment. It is the judiciary’s job to decide what punishment the culprit will get.
In fact, the Calcutta High Court chastised the state government for protecting Dr Sandip Ghosh, the principal of RG Kar College, and stated that there was an attempt to cover up the horrific crime by labelling it a suicide. It is worth noting that Ghosh resigned amidst protests, and was immediately appointed as the principal of the state government’s Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) on the same day. The fact that Calcutta HC transferred the RG Kar medico rape and murder case to CBI after the victim’s parents raised concern that the probe under Kolkata Police would derail, indicates the local police failed to conduct an impartial and thorough investigation.
OpIndia reported how the medical college authority demolished the walls of the Chest Medicine Dept, where the girl was raped and murdered, in the name of renovation. BJP has alleged that the state was trying to tamper with the evidence in the case by breaking the walls. In the wake of these incidents, Mamata Banerjee shrewdly attempted to protect her government and the state police from criticism over her failure to ensure justice by shifting the ‘burden’ on the CBI.
Mamata Banerjee goes the AAP way to shun accountability, hog media attention, and politicise a heinous crime
While Mamata Banerjee’s announcement of protests raises questions like who is she protesting against, the Kolkata Police, the culprit or herself since she is the Chief Minister, there is another aspect to this: manipulating the narrative. At present, this horrific incident has left the country agitated and shocked, with media showing how the medicos are peacefully protesting in West Bengal and other parts of the country and how they were assaulted in Bengal in police presence. However, as the state’s Chief Minister herself will stage a ‘protest’ demanding ‘justice’ even though ensuring the safety of people is her job, the visuals of attacks on protesting medicos will be replaced with CM Banerjee protesting. More than the injustice that happened to the victim, there will be discussions on how Mamata Banerjee stood for the deceased victim.
As Chief Minister, Banerjee is directly responsible for upholding law and order in West Bengal. Her position necessitates swift and fair action to preserve the safety and security of the state’s residents, rather than organising or engaging in protests as if she is an outsider to the state’s governance or an opposition leader.
The sheer inanity of a sitting Chief Minister protesting against the very system she controls highlights a failure to take responsibility for the state’s governance and respond promptly and decisively to such horrible crimes. Instead of leading from the front and ensuring that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice, although a lack of the same forced Calcutta HC to hand the probe to CBI, Banerjee’s protest apparently, an excuse to deflect accountability and appear sympathetic, rather than addressing the underlying causes of the systemic failures that led to this tragic incident.
Incidentally, the TMC government’s conduct in West Bengal reminds one of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in New Delhi. AAP has traditionally been following the mantra “behave like government in normal days, behave like opposition in crisis”. Be it the ‘Pani Satyagraha’ and fast unto-death drama performed by Water Minister Atishi when the national capital faced water crisis and shamelessly blaming neighbouring states for the same, AAP successfully deflected accountability for its own failures by making the Centre and neighbouring Haryana and Himachal Pradesh villains, as well as shifted media attention from Delhi people running after water tankers to Atishi’s health allegedly deteriorating due to the ‘anshan’ and she being rushed to the hospital.
Banerjee appears to be distancing herself from the administrative failures under her watch by organising protests, aiming to rebrand herself as a sympathetic leader who stands with the victim. This tactic, however, is merely a superficial gesture rather than a genuine response to the horrifying crime. In the face of public outcry, it appears that she is attempting to clean up her own image. These are hollow stunts of CM Banerjee to keep herself in the news and weave a favourable narrative while failures of her administration are glaring on everyone’s face.
It is a blatant politicisation of the brutal rape and murder of the trainee doctor and has nothing to do with ensuring justice for the victim. Suppose the CBI concludes its investigation by Sunday as the ‘deadline’ given by CM Banerjee. In that case, she will pat her back and say “Together we fought and got justice for the victim” If the CBI takes more time in the investigation, the TMC will say that the Centre is anti-woman and insensitive and does not want the victim to get justice etc. By giving a deadline to the CBI, Mamata Banerjee created a win-win situation for herself. She deliberately gave the CBI a deadline to “hang” the accused since deciding if the culprit should be given life imprisonment or a hanging sentence is the judiciary’s job and not that of the CBI.
What an irony that the victim’s family had to move to court over concerns that the case investigation under local authorities would be derailed and demand a CBI investigation, the state’s leader has the audacity to give a deadline to the CBI to hang the culprit by Sunday.
Fail in own job, create drama, then blame the center for everything: Mamata Banerjee has been doing this for a long time
Back in 2019, Mamata Banerjee had tried to blame the Centre to deflect attention after cyclone Fani hit India’s eastern coast with Odisha and coastal areas of West Bengal getting severely affected. Banerjee had claimed that while PM Modi spoke to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik after Cyclone Fani, he did not bother calling her. Mamata Banerjee and her party had claimed that PM Modi spoke to the governor of West Bengal and not to the CM after the cyclone was ‘an attack on the federal structure’ of the state. However, it was later clarified by the PMO that the PM’s staff had attempted twice to get CM Mamata over the phone to speak with the PM, without success. On both occasions, the PM’s staff were told that she would return the call which never happened.
The ongoing doctors’ protests remind one of a similar agitation in 2019 after two doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital were attacked by relatives of a patient Mohammad Sayeed who died during treatment in June 2019. Instead of addressing the grievances of the doctors, Mamata Banerjee accused them of being ‘outsiders.’ “They are outsiders. The government will not support them in any way. I condemn doctors who have gone on strike. Policemen die in the line of duty but the police don’t go on a strike,” she had said.
Back then, CM Banerjee had given a strict ‘deadline’ to the protesting medicos to return to duty, however, she was compelled to soften her stance and give assurance to ramp up security in hospitals.
Besides shifting the blame on the Centre, CM Banerjee also takes delight in blaming the victims for their situation to cover up her administration’s failure to uphold law and order. For instance, she had earlier insinuated that violence occurs when Hindus take out Ram Navami processions through ‘Muslim areas’ and also attempted to give a clean chit to the Islamists by invoking their Faith and Ramzan.
Mamata Banerjee and TMC have a knack for dismissing or downplaying rape cases
Sadly, crimes against women are not unusual in TMC-ruled West Bengal. It was seen recently, how Tajamul Haque ran his ‘Sharia court’ and thrashed a woman in Taliban style by throwing her to the ground while parading another woman tied up in the streets. Chopra’s TMC MLA, Hamidul Rehman even justified the act, referring to West Bengal as a ‘Muslim Rashtra’. The nation witnessed how Shahjahan Sheikh, who assaulted the ED officials, and his henchmen sexually assaulted tribal women in Sandeshkhali, and the Supreme Court rebuked the state government for shielding him.
There have been many incidents when CM Banerjee displayed her ignominious insensitivity towards women victims despite being a woman herself. In April last year, she claimed that the alleged ‘rape and murder case in Kaliganj was a ‘love affair’ gone wrong. It was reported that a Dalit woman was discovered floating in a canal in the Kaliagunj area in Uttar Dinajpur district. It was reported that the victim was raped before being murdered.
In 2022, she tried todownplay allegations of brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl as a ‘love affair’ gone wrong. Similarly, back in 2012, Mamata Banerjee had absolved those accused of raping an Anglo-Indian woman Suzette Jordan in the Park Street in Kolkata. Banerjee said that the incident as ‘shajano ghotona‘ (concocted incident), which was allegedly ‘designed to malign the government.’ In 2013, Banerjee linked rising rape cases in the state with rise in population.
Coming back to the present RG Kar Medical College and Hospital case, CM Mamata Banerjee should prioritise ensuring security and law and order rather than shifting blame and politicising such a serious issue for political gain. The people of this country will remember how a sitting Chief Minister was organising protests to shift attention away from administrative shortcomings rather than ensuring thorough investigation and justice for the victim.
A day after Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shantanu Sen spoke out against anti-social activity at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, he was removed from the position of party spokesperson.
The ex-Rajya Sabha MP had stood by the protestors seeking justice for the junior doctor, who was raped and murdered at the seminar room of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Sen had reportedly drawn the ire of the TMC high command after his critical comments about the functioning of the healthcare institution, which also happens to be his alma mater.
#WatchNow: আরজি কর-কাণ্ডে সরব, তৃণমূলের মুখপাত্র পদ থেকে অপসারিত শান্তনু সেন। 'তৃণমূলের যারা আরজি করের ঘটনা নিয়ে কথা বলছেন, তাদের আগেই সরিয়ে দিয়েছি, তারাও কিন্তু এই চক্রান্তে জড়িত', নাম না করে শান্তনু সেনকে আক্রমণে মমতা বন্দোপাধ্যায়।
He had said, “There is a racket that runs in the college and if you don’t oil them then you get targeted and if you oil them you can do whatever you want. I don’t want to name any particular professors but if you are in their good books then you can even cheat in the examination but if you are targeted no matter how good you are your Hons. Will get cancelled.”
The TMC leader had informed, “A day before Saraswati puja my daughter was going to college for pre-puja celebrations. But just because my daughter didn’t get into the racket that’s why she was not allowed to participate. No one talks to her or studies with her.“
His wife Kakali had also joined the doctors of the healthcare institution in protests. Shantanu Sen’s daughter also studies at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
"Listen to what Dr. Santanu Sen's wife, a fellow doctor and R.G. Kar alumnus, has to say about the safety of the R.G. Kar environment during the Left-wing era." pic.twitter.com/J5dbbb5B2p
Shantanu Sen had openly lambasted Sandip Ghosh, the ex-Principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital who is believed to be close to the ruling TMC government.
“For the last three years, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has been deprived because of the principal,” he did not mince any words before holding Ghosh responsible for the college’s deterioration.
And now, it has come to light that the TMC leader has been removed as party spokesperson. State Vice-President Jayaprakash Majumdar has however dismissed accusations of Sen’s sacking, following his comments about the hospital administration.
Majumdar claimed that the decision to remove Sen as TMC spokesperson was taken at the start of the RG Kar Hospital incident and has nothing to do with his recent comments.
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Thursday visited the emergency department in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital after a mob vandalised parts of the hospital campus where a protest was going on by doctors and students over the rape & murder of a female trainee doctor.
While speaking to the students He said “You will get justice, I have come here to listen to you personally. I am with you; we will fight out. we shall overcome.”
“We will not allow these ghastly things to be done with our sisters anymore in the state. We are all with you. We will fight it out everywhere” the West Bengal governor added.
Assuring fast action in the case, Governor Bose said “We will work together, I will devote myself to your service, This Bengal society, should be made a society where a woman could live happily.”
When students asked him about the actions of the mob that vandalised the medical college premises he said “Let me go to the police and take stock of the situation, I will discuss it with you and get your opinion and then only we will take action”.
Earlier, on Thursday Kolkata Police clarified that the crime scene of the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor at the RG Kar Medical College in the city had not been disturbed during the mob vandalism that broke out late on the night of August 14.
In a post on ‘X’, the Kolkata Police said, “The crime scene is the seminar room and it has not been touched. Don’t spread unverified news. We will initiate legal action for spreading rumours.”
A final year MBBS student from Kolkata, Anupam Roy had on Thursday accused the mob of indulging in deliberate vandalisation and sought the support of the public for extending support to ensure a secure environment for doctors.
On Wednesday night, a mob entered the RG Kar hospital campus vandalised the site of the protest and attacked vehicles and public property, forcing security officials to disperse the mob.
On August 9, a post-graduate trainee doctor was found dead in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The victim’s family has alleged that she was raped and murdered. This incident has triggered a nationwide protest by doctors and medical fraternities.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
The incident rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata has sparked nationwide protest and also dragged a mountain of mess on the RG Kar Medical College. Notably, the hospital administration had first claimed that it was a suicide case, but the probe revealed that it was a case of brutal rape and murder. While the CBI has taken over the case and is investigating every minute aspect related to the case of the victim’s doctor, this is not the first such to have happened at the hospital.
On 25 August in 2001, a fourth-year medical student at RG Kar Medical College was found hanging in his hostel room, and it was claimed by the authorities that it was a suicide case, just like the current case. But when the family of victim Soumitra Biswas disagreed and demanded a probe, the Calcutta High Court ordered a CID investigation into the case.
Even though Auromita Das, a female student of the medical college, was arrested in connection with the case, the West Bengal Police CID could not make much progress in the case, and it remains unresolved. The police had questioned several members of SFI, the student wing of CPM, but could not find any clue.
Soumitra’s mother had alleged that her son’s friends at the medical college were responsible for his death, as he allegedly discovered indecent activities on the campus. Notably, several students at the medical college had blamed an alleged porn ring in the RG Kar Medical College for the death of Soumitra Biswas.
Talking to the media, students from R.G. Kar Medical College at that time accused pornography, prostitution networks, and shady dealings with women for the ‘murder’ of an innocent. The students claimed that Soumitra was ‘murdered’ and it was all organized and masterminded by state doctors and staged directly within the hostel of one of the city’s best medical institutions. According to his colleagues, Soumitra paid the price for exposing the nasty work of shooting pornographic photos and videos in one or more hostel rooms.
Soumitra was found hanging from the ceiling in his hostel room at Lalit Memorial Hostel, next to the medical college.
“Soumitra, like all of us, knew about it but neither he nor any one of us had the courage to challenge it. But when a close friend of Soumitra, a batchmate, was victimised by the coterie who superimposed her face on another woman’s nude body, he could not control himself,” said an inmate in the hostel.
According to them, the shooting was done primarily on weekends by inviting sex workers into the hostel. “During the crisis, when they couldn’t find a prostitute, they even used dead bodies from the hospital used for dissection. It is a massive racket being supported by a political leader. Then they would superimpose models’ faces over naked photos of dead bodies,” claimed another fourth-year student.
The student had said that shootings of porn videos took place in hospital classrooms, seminar rooms and hostel rooms. They said that authorities knew everything but they didn’t do anything. The miscreants allegedly used photos of faces of female students at the medical college to superimpose on the videos made with prostitutes.
They claimed that when Soumitra’s girlfriend’s photo was also used in this manner, he protested against the gang, and this ultimately led to his death. Reportedly, Soumitra had told his batchmate Auromita Das about the mischief committed by some of the males who, he claimed, had pasted her face from images taken at a birthday celebration onto nude bodies and shared the unpleasant photographs. She then found out that it was done by someone whose advances she had rejected in the past.
She also claimed to have approached the young men and ticked them off, confiding in the heat of the moment that Soumitra had informed her of the existence of the morphed images. Soumitra’s ‘betrayal’, protests, and possible threat to expose the scam, according to a substantial portion of the students, may have contributed to his death.
The allegations were supported by the fact that tripods and reflectors were found in a hostel room, allegedly used to shoot porn videos. While students verified that the room was frequently utilized for shooting, the police did not even bother to search the room during the investigation, even though the tripods and reflectors were still present after the dead body of Soumitra Biswas was discovered in the adjacent room, indicating that shooting by a group continued even after Biswas’ death.
However, no action was taken against the hostel or college administrators for willful negligence. Ironically, there were enough early indicators of foul play. When Biswas’s dead body was discovered, a handkerchief was found shoved in his throat, according to the OC of Chitpur Police Station. Dr. Apurba Bose of the R.G. Kar Medical College also informed the media that the door at the back of the room had been oddly wrenched open. The physicians were equally startled to observe the youngster hanging from the ceiling fan with a very short nylon string. The youth couldn’t have tied the noose around his own neck and then reached for the ceiling fan because the length was too short, they said.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has accused allopathic medicines of killing crores of people as he advocated for Ayurvedic forms of medication while talking to the media on the occasion of 15th August, Independence Day. He claimed, “The aspiration of dependence on only indigenous (Ayurvedic) medicine remains unfulfilled, as the toxic medications of allopathy cause millions of deaths annually. According to the history we have studied, the British killed over ten crore people to gain their dominance over the world.”
The spiritual leader added, “In a similar vein, millions of people have been slaughtered under the name of Islam and numerous fatalities and casualties were recorded during purported revolutions in the name of Lenin, Marx and Mao. However, toxic synthetic medications end the lives of crores of individuals every year. We will intensify our efforts in the fight for autonomous and indigenous medicine.”
Crores are dying after consuming poisonous allopathic medicines: Ramdev's fresh tirade against allopathy. pic.twitter.com/RAvgyg7Wrc
Notably, in a major relief for Baba Ramdev, the Supreme Court on 13th August closed a contempt case against him and Patanjali Ayurveda MD Acharya Balkrishna in a misleading advertisements case. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had filed a plea alleging a smear campaign against modern medicine and the COVID-19 vaccination program, which prompted the proceedings. The verdict was announced by a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah. The court accepted the parties’ offered apologies and declared the matter to be closed. The bench did, however, issue a warning, instructing them to abide by all court decisions going forward and not to do what had transpired earlier.
“We accept the apology tendered by the party. However, we expressly and strictly warn them that they will not do anything in violation of the court orders, as happened earlier in this case. We have come down heavily, and we warn you that this should not be done in the future. The affidavits tendered before this court should be done with full truth. We close the contempt proceedings initiated against the party with the warning of adhering to the orders passed by this court in this case. The notice issued to the present contemnor also stands discharge and closed,” the bench declared.
Baba Ramdev has apologised before the Supreme Court multiple times for misleading advertisements and fearmongering against modern medicines. Despite repeated warnings, the Yoga guru turned wellness entrepreneur has not stopped from public claims against modern medicines to promote Ayurvedic products.
