Midnight attack on Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital during protest triggers crisis
A mob stormed into Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital post-midnight and destroyed hospital property.
Kolkata: A large group of unidentified men stormed into Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital around 12.40am on Thursday and destroyed hospital property at rampant in the middle of the junior doctors’ ongoing agitation against the August 9 rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor that the Central Bureau of Investigation started probing earlier in the day on court orders, police and the agitators said.
The attackers did not spare the emergency ward where even medicines were destroyed. The police intermittently resorted to baton charge and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the mob that allegedly came from several directions. A number of police vehicles were vandalised, officials said.
“Several police personnel guarding the agitation site and the hospital were injured by brickbats,” a police officer deployed in the area said on condition of anonymity.
The police department did not say till 4am how many of its personnel were injured or how many miscreants were arrested.
The agitating junior doctors said none of them sustained any serious injury the rampage that continued for around one hour.
The vandalism instantly affected the nightlong street movement organized in Kolkata and district across West Bengal by citizens condemning the 31-year-old junior doctor’s murder and safety for women in the state. Students and citizens who took part in an agitation outside Jadavpur University, located more than 10 km away from R G Kar Hospital, gheraoed the Jadavpur police station.
Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal rushed to RG Kar Hospital around 1.20am. Additional forces were also called in.
“We could see the troublemakers assembling outside the hospital much before the attack started and requested the police to take steps but they did nothing. When the rampage started the policemen rushed inside the hospital premises to take shelter,” Aniket Maity, a junior doctor, told the media.
The police commissioner directly blamed the social media and a section of online news outlets for the attack saying malicious campaigns regarding the 31-year-old doctor's murder triggered the attack.
“Unfounded information and false allegations were being constantly spread on social media. This led to the attack. I am saying as commissioner of police that no effort was made at any level to shied anyone. We promptly arrested the prime suspect. We said there could be others and investigations were on. But there was a continuous effort to malign the police,” Goyal told the media at the trouble site.
Sanjay Roy (31), a civic volunteer working for the Kolkata Police, was arrested on August 10 as the prime suspect in the crime which took place at the third-floor seminar hall in the hospital’s chest department between 3and 5 am on August 9. A CBI team from Delhi visited the crime scene and talked to some of the hospital staff hours before Thursday night's attack.
“My men have worked day and night to collect evidences. I am extremely aggrieved by what has happened. If CBI can prove that we have destroyed any evidence then there is a section under law for that. We are a responsible force. I can say from the core of my heart that we did not protect anyone,” said Goyal.
“Yet, we are seeing campaigns on social media alleging various types of bone injuries (inflicted on the victim) that scientific evidence does not support. It is also being alleged that some Mahapatra with a political connection is behing the crime. What is this? There is an intern by the name of Mahapatra but he comes from a small place. His father is a school teacher. I am extremely angry at what has happened. The accused (Roy) is constantly saying something which evidence does not support, We have to wait for scientific corroborative evidence which takes time,” Goyal said.
The violence took place hours after Trinamool Congress chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee hit back at the opposition and announced back-to-back agitations by her own party starting August 17.
“The agitations will take place at all community blocks and municipal areas of Bengal demanding justice for the victim and capital punishment for the accused,” Banerjee announced at a pre-Independence Day event of the TMC, targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that have backed the people’s movements since August 9.
While ordering the CBI probe on Tuesday, the division of bench of Calcutta high court chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya appealed to the agitating junior doctors to join duty for the sake of patients.
Banerjee, who is also in charge of the home and health departments, made a similar appeal on Wednesday evening from the TMC event.
“You have agitated for five days. Three people, including a child and a pregnant woman, died during this period because of lack of treatment. I beg at your feet, please join duty. You have a duty as doctors,” she said.
The junior doctors at RG Kar Hospital however did not budge. They said a bigger agitation would start if the real culprits are not arrested in 48 hours.
The Bharatiya Janata Party reacted sharply to the midnight incident.
“Who are these vandals and how could they enter the hospital despite the presence of the police? Was destroying evidence not enough that an attack on the young doctors had to be organised. The home minister has to give an answer,” Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said.
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee reacted on X around 1.45am.
“The hooliganism and vandalism at RG Kar tonight have exceeded all acceptable limits. As a public representative, I just spoke with @CPKolkata, urging him to ensure that every individual responsible for today’s violence is identified, held accountable, and made to face the law within the next 24 hours, regardless of their political affiliations,” Banerjee wrote.
“The demands of the protesting doctors are fair and justified. This is the minimum they should expect from the government. Their safety and security must be prioritized,” Banerjee wrote in his post.