Anger and protests intensified across West Bengal over the gruesome incident of miscreants entering state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and vandalising portions of the medical facility, even after a massive mass movement took place to protest against the rape and murder of a junior woman doctor.
Women in Kolkata and many other parts of the country on Wednesday night organised a mass movement, calling it ‘Women, Reclaim the Night’ after the body of the woman doctor was found at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The unidentified miscreants in late night forcibly entered the premises of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and attacked agitating doctors. The miscreants even vandalised portions of the hospital, including the emergency department and critical care units. They also attacked police outposts and damaged police vehicles.
In the wee hours of Independence Day, thousands of people, mostly women, holding flaming torches and blowing conch shells began to march through streets across the state as a part of the mass movement.
After the vandalism, junior doctors, students and nurses of Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital intensified their protests against the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor.
Kolkata Police on Thursday arrested nine miscreants in connection with the mob violence. “The scene of the crime is Seminar Room which is intact and has not been touched,” the Kolkata Police wrote on X.
Speaking on the mob violence, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “politically-motivated outsiders who wish to create issues in the state” were responsible for the attack. “They viciously attacked the police. A Deputy Commissioner was found unconscious due to injuries to his head,” Banerjee said. “The police did not wish to resort to violence, so they took a peaceful stance,” she added.
The female doctor was found dead last Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime.
A CBI team visited the hospital and initiated a probe into the gruesome crime.