- Thursday, December 26, 2024
R G Kar Medical College former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh was grilled by the CBI on Friday and was called back for questioning the next day
By: Shajil Kumar
THE FORMER principal of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, Dr Sandip Ghosh, on Saturday appeared before the CBI for questioning for the second consecutive day in connection with the rape and murder of a doctor.
On Friday, the agency escorted the former hospital principal for questioning which continued till 3 am on Saturday.
Ghosh was made to sit in a room at the CBI’s city office here at the CGO Complex till 9.30 pm after which the grilling session started, an officer said.
Hours later, Ghosh reached the CBI office for the second time a little before 10.30 am for his second round of examination.
During his first round of questioning, the former principal was asked about his first reaction after getting the news of the doctor’s death whom he instructed to inform the family and how and who contacted the police, the officer said.
“Certain answers were convoluted. He was grilled till early Saturday and then allowed to leave for home,” the officer told PTI.
Ghosh was asked to appear before its officers again on Saturday morning following which he reached the CBI office.
Ghosh was also asked about the weekly roster where the victim was seen to be put on duty for gruelling 36 hours or at times even 48 hours, he said.
The former principal had resigned from the post two days after the body was discovered.
He had expressed fears of being attacked, prompting his lawyer to seek protection from the Calcutta High Court. The court directed him to approach a single bench.
The body of the post-graduate trainee doctor was found in the RG Kar Hospital’s seminar room on August 9. Police arrested a civic volunteer the next day in this connection.
Doctors’ strike
Medical professionals across the country started a 24-hour shutdown of non-emergency services on Saturday in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.
The shutdown, which began at 6 a.m., will cut off access to elective medical procedures and out-patient consultations in the world’s most populous nation, according to a statement by the Indian Medical Association.
Casualty departments at hospitals, which deal with emergencies, will continue to be staffed.
“Women form the majority of our profession in this country. Time and again, we have asked for safety for them,” IMA President R.V. Asokan told Reuters on Friday.
More than a million medics were expected to join the strike.
In Kolkata, thousands held a candle-lit vigil into the early hours of Saturday morning.
“Hands that heal shouldn’t bleed,” read one handwritten sign held by a protester in the eastern city.
“Enough is enough,” read another at a rally by doctors in the capital New Delhi. “Hang the rapist”, another said.
“We ask for the understanding and support of the nation in this struggle for justice for its doctors and daughters,” Asokan said in a statement.
The IMA called the killing “barbaric”.
“The 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to rest… warrant a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of the resident doctors,” the IMA said in a statement.
Doctors are demanding the implementation of the Central Protection Act, a bill to protect healthcare workers from violence.
“There is a lack of proper infrastructure,” said 29-year-old Akanksha Tyagi, a resident at the Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi who took part in one of the multiple protests around the country.
“After working for 24-36 hours at a stretch, there’s no proper place for us to rest,” she said.
A 31-year old trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week inside R G Kar Medical College in Kolkata where she worked.
This triggered nationwide protests among doctors and drew parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.
Anger at the failure of tough laws to deter a rising tide of violence against women has fuelled protests by doctors and women’s groups.
UK doctors’ open letter
A group of Indian doctors and medical students in the UK have issued an open letter this weekend demanding justice for the postgraduate trainee doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
The letter condemns the “brutal rape and murder of an on-duty female doctor” at the hospital and the “inaction” of the West Bengal government in its response to the incident last week.
The letter follows a peaceful protest staged outside India House in London and similar gatherings in UK cities such as Edinburgh and Leeds in solidarity with the doctors protesting in India.
“This incident is a symptom of the rising violence against women and the negligence of the state towards its citizens,” reads the open letter.
“The absence of investment in public infrastructure and safety measures has a disproportionate impact on women, who are already marginalised by the patriarchal social conditions. Instead of supporting their empowerment by creating safe workplaces and efficient judicial mechanisms, government leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, have historically indulged in victim-blaming and misogynist responses,” it notes.
“The death of the female doctor at RG Kar Medical College is an indication of the urgent necessity to implement public safety measures and internal complaint mechanisms in all workplaces in the country,” it adds.
Further protests are planned in the UK, with a peaceful demonstration by British Indian women doctors at Parliament Square in London near the Mahatma Gandhi statue, scheduled for August 22.
“We stand in solidarity with our fraternity. Justice delayed is justice denied is the collective refrain of the doctors who have reached out to me from across the UK, US, Canada and the UAE,” said Dr Dipti Jain, a National Health Service (NHS) geriatrician based in Brighton.
Jain is coordinating next week’s protest as Lead for the Pan UK South Asian Doctors and chair of the Medicos Women Charity. (Agencies)
