Kolkata rape-murder case: Doctor's family under house arrest, claims Congress leader
Kolkata rape-murder case: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the police had offered the father money for cremating the body quickly.
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday claimed that the parents of the trainee doctor who was allegedly raped and killed at a hospital in Kolkata are being kept under virtual "house arrest" by the authorities.
"I visited the family of the deceased doctor at their residence and spoke to them for a long time. The police have kept the family under house arrest. They are not allowing them to come out of the house on the pretext of various excuses. The police have created a barricade around them, the CISF has no clue about this," Chowdhury told reporters.
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His visit comes amid ongoing protests by junior doctors and allegations from the victim's parents that more than one individual was involved in the crime.
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Chowdhury also claimed that the police, under instructions from the TMC-led West Bengal government, offered the victim’s father money and urged him to quickly cremate the body.
"The Kolkata Police following the directive of the state government had offered the father money while telling him that the body of his daughter be cremated without delay," Chowdhury alleged.
The body of the post-graduate trainee doctor was discovered in the seminar hall of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, triggering outrage across the medical community in the state. Protesting junior doctors have been on a cease-work strike since the discovery, demanding justice for their colleague and calling for stronger security measures at medical institutions.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stopped from entering RG Kar Medical College
The senior Congress leader hit out at the police for preventing him from meeting the agitating doctors during his visit to RG Kar Hospital.
"I went there as a common person and not as a political leader, to express solidarity with them (the protesting doctors). But I was stopped from meeting them by the police... Had they shown this promptness earlier, our sister doctor would not have met this fate," he said.
One civic volunteer of the Kolkata Police has been arrested in connection with the crime, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now taken over the investigation following an order from the Calcutta High Court.