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Kolkata rape-murder case: Chaos as mob storms hospital amid night protest
The mob violence, reported after midnight on Thursday, also prompted health care providers and an umbrella body of doctors’ unions to resume a nationwide strike
Hundreds of people smashed through police barricades to storm the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata early on Thursday, wrecking the emergency unit, several wards and medical equipment at the government facility where a junior doctor was raped and murdered last week, even as the streets throbbed with irate protesters in midnight marches that crisscrossed the city.
Police arrested 12 people in connection with the vandalism, which also opened up the latest chapter in a political firestorm that has ensnared the state, with chief minister Mamata Banerjee accusing Left groups and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of the violence and the Opposition retorting that the mobs were backed by the ruling Trinamool Congress to sabotage the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) visited the victim’s house in North 24 Parganas district, a day after it kicked off its probe into the heinous crime that has sparked outrage and sweeping protests throughout the country for justice.
The mob violence, reported after midnight on Thursday, also prompted health care providers and an umbrella body of doctors’ unions to resume a nationwide strike, a day after calling off their initial stir that had paralysed medical services.
Protesters carrying banners, placards and candles occupied large swathes of the West Bengal capital around midnight on Thursday, with tens of thousands of people stepping out of their homes during an agitation that sought to “reclaim the night”.
The 32-year-old woman was raped and murder inside the seminar hall of the prominent public hospital early on August 9. Her body was found later that morning, and Sanjay Roy, a 31-year-old civic volunteer with the police, was arrested. The autopsy indicated that the woman was brutalised with a foreign object and assaulted before the murder.
Thursday’s stir was rocked around 12.40am as news streamed in that a hundreds-strong mob had stormed the hospital in the Belgachhia neighbourhood of north Kolkata. Videos, corroborated by eyewitnesses, showed people tearing through the hospital’s primary entrance, mowing down police barricades and assaulting security forces.
The mob, armed with cricket bats and metal rods, fanned out across the facility’s vast campus. They smashed CCTV cameras and wrecked a dais that the hospital’s doctors were using as a platform for their protests.
Some groups broke into the emergency unit on the ground floor of the main building while others made their way up to a ward on the first floor and the ENT department on the second floor. The woman was raped on the third floor.
They smashed medicine cabinets, destroyed monitors and clinical equipment, and upturned beds.
“The attackers entered through the emergency unit on the ground floor, went up the stairs and destroyed property on the first floor and even at the ENT department on the second floor. But they could not reach the third floor since the gates were locked,” a senior doctor at the hospital said, asking not to be named.
“The hospital’s chest medicine department, where the trainee doctor was murdered, is on the third floor of the same building,” the doctor added. CBI teams inspected the spot hours before the violence.
In a post on X, the Kolkata Police said: “The crime scene is the seminar room and it has not been touched.”
No patients or protesting doctors were injured during the vandalism, but the Kolkata Police said “several” of their personnel were wounded. This was later reiterated by Banerjee.
Police rushed in reinforcements amid swelling concerns that the mob would vandalise the crime scene, resorting to baton charges and lobbing tear gas shells into the campus to disperse the frenzied crowds.
Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal arrived at the hospital around 1.20am, blaming social media disinformation campaigns and online news outlets for fanning tensions, seeking to deflect blame from his force and their handling of the situation.
“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 shield 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,” an emotional Goyal said.
“My men have worked day and night to collect evidence. 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,” he added.
However, doctors protesting in the hospital alleged that police did little to avert the attack.
“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,” said Aniket Maity, a junior doctor.
West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose visited the hospital on Thursday afternoon and met protesting doctors.
“Yesterday’s vandalism is a shame to civil society. It’s a shame to all of humanity that young girls are not protected. This bloodbath cannot be allowed anymore. This must stop,” he said.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee condemned the incident in a post on X at 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,” he said
“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,” Abhishek Banerjee added.
Chief minister Banerjee on Thursday evening blamed “the Left and BJP” and “outsiders” for fomenting tensions.
“Some outsiders who are political elements and want to foment trouble in Bengal - the Left and the BJP - have together unleashed this,” she said outside Raj Bhavan, where she went to join the customary high tea on occasion of Independence Day.
“I don’t have any complaints against students or agitating doctors. But there are certain political parties which are trying to foment trouble. If you go through the video, you will get to see what happened,” she added, claiming that members of the BJP and DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India, a Left group) were behind the vandalism.
Protesting doctors at RG Kar refused to let the newly appointed principal Dr Suhrita Pal enter her office till security arrangements at the hospital were revamped.
“If you know anything about the identity of the miscreants, please tell me. I am not the sole authority to intensify security arrangements. Internal security is handled by a private agency. We have sought deployment of around 200 more personnel but that will take a few days,” Pal said on Thursday afternoon. She was surrounded till evening.
“If you know anything about the identity of the miscreants, please tell me. I am not the sole authority to intensify security arrangements. Internal security is handled by a private agency. We have sought deployment of around 200 more personnel but that will take a few days,” Pal said on Thursday afternoon.
“Our agitation will continue. The attack in the presence of police has proved how unsafe the hospital premises is,” said Humayun Kabir, a junior doctor.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, wrote to the Centre, seeking security by paramilitary forces at RG Kar hospital.
In his letter to the Union home secretary , Adhikari said it was the duty of the police to protect the crime scene and provide security to the people working and patients being treated at the hospital, but they “miserably failed”.
“....due to their incompetence, rather than protecting innocent citizens, they were locking themselves up in toilets, leaving the entire hospital exposed to the rioters,” he said.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Associations (FORDA) said it would resume its strike.
“We acknowledge that our earlier decision to call off the strike, made in good faith based on assurances from the ministry, has caused distress and disappointment within our community. We accept responsibility for this and understand the widespread discontent it has caused,” the federation said in a statement.
