The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded resignation of Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister of West Bengal and claimed that the mob violence at state-run R G Kar Hospital, during the ‘Reclaim the Night’ protest, was sponsored by her party Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Shortly after midnight on Thursday, August 15, the ‘Reclaim the Night’ protest was carried out to urge authorities to make public space safer for women and ensuring just in the rape and murder case of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, turned violent on Wednesday night.
Around 12:40 am, a mob entered the hospital where the woman trainee doctor’s semi-naked body was found lying in the seminar hall on August 9. They barged into the premises and started vandalising the property there when a large number of people had congregated to protest against the brutal crime.
Miscreants entered the premises of the state-run hospital and vandalised portions of the medical facility.
According to the Kolkata Police, a group of about 40 people, mostly men, allegedly disguised as protesters, barged into the hospital premises and began attacking other protesters carrying out peaceful protest under the banner ‘reclaim the night’.
They also attacked doctors of the R G Kar Hospital and even vandalised property as well as pelted stones at cops, leaving several injured.
Visuals that have gone viral on social media showed the miscreants breaking barricades, damaging police vehicles and two-wheelers that parked there.
Seeing the mob forcibly entering the hospital, protesters and doctors ran to take shelter. Media personnel, who were there to cover the protests, took shelter with students and doctors in an auditorium inside the hospital.
Lathi-charge at R G Kar Hospital
Police personnel had to use tear gas shells and resort to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd and bring the situation under control.
Riot control police were also out on the streets around the hospital.
Mamata Banerjee must quit if she has any morality left: BJP
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla called the mob violence at R G Kar Hospital on Thursday a “state sponsored violence and hooliganism.”
Poonawalla said that eyewitnesses have shown how the mob was brought in trucks and were placed in order to break the protest and create ruckus as well as ransack the R G Kar Hospital and perhaps destroy evidence. “This is the mindset with which TMC operates,” he said.
“Not a Sanyog (cooperation) but a Prayog (method) to destroy evidence, discredit the protests which were peaceful, intimidate protesting women & doctors & suppress the truth. It is TANASHAHI MANSIKTA & CULTURE – TMC,” Poonawalla said in a video message that he posted on X.
“Mamata Banerjee must quit if she has any morality left,” the BJP leader further said, adding, “Bengal law and order – RIP (rest in peace).”
Another BJP leader, Suvendu Adhikari, who also is the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, alleged that the vandalism at the R G Kar Hospital on Thursday was carried out by “TMC goons” sent by party supermo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Mamata Banerjee has sent her TMC goons to the apolitical Protest Rally near RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. She thinks that she is the most shrewd person in the whole world and people won’t be able to figure out the cunning plan that her goons appearing as protestors would mix with the crowd and carry out vandalism inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital,” Adhikari posted on X.
Police blames media
The Kolkata Police Commissioner, Vineet Goyal, who reached R G Kar Hospital around 2 am on Thursday, meanwhile, accused the media of running a “malicious campaign”.
“What happened here is due to a wrong and motivated media campaign. Because of a malicious media campaign, Kolkata Police lost the trust of the people. There is so much pressure from the media,” Goyal said.
The senior cop of the Kolkata Police also said he was “extremely angry” and denied mishandling the probe.
“I am telling you from the core of my heart, from every member of the team, that we have not tried to save anyone. We are a responsible force, we can’t destroy evidence just like that,” the chief defended his team.
‘Police stood as mute spectators’
Resident doctors, who were also part of the peaceful protest, blamed police’s inaction.
“A mob of miscreants entered the hospital. The agitating doctors were attacked and had to flee. They even tried to enter the building where the junior doctor was raped andmurdered. Police stood as mute spectators,” Subhendu Mullick, a senior resident doctor at NRS who was among the protesters, alleged.
‘Hooliganism at R G Kar exceeded all acceptable limits’: TMC
The general secretary of the ruling party in the state (TMC) and MP, Abhishek Banerjee, informed that he had spoken to Vineet Goyal and urged 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”.
“The hooliganism and vandalism at RG Kar tonight have exceeded all acceptable limits. As a public representative, I just spoke with CPKolkata,” Abhishek Banerjee said in a post on X.
“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 prioritised,” Banerjee said.
On Wednesday, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team visited RG Kar Hospital and initiated a probe into the brutal crime.
On Tuesday, the Calcutta high court had ordered the transfer of the probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the CBI.
Kolkata hospital rape and murder
Last week, a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital while on night duty. The semi-naked body of the 31-year-old woman doctor was found in the seminar hall of the state-run hospital in the morning of August 9.
Police have arrested Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer, in connection with the crime.
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With inputs from agencies
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