How RG Kar case accused brought doctors’ bodies on a collision course

His face pressed against the barbed window of the prison van, Sanjay Roy, the accused in the rape-murder of a doctor of Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, shouted at the media microphones trying to reach him. “I have been framed to save the real ones (culprits),” he claimed on November 4. This one sentence from the accused in the most heinous crime case to have hit West Bengal in recent times has brought matters on the boil again.
As the van drove by, Roy kept shouting: “I told the judge that Sir, I have not done anything. But I was brought downstairs (from the courtroom to the lobby). Is this justice? Is this justice of the Indian Constitution?”
Many would say it is beyond question to even pay heed to what Roy claims, and not at least nearly three months after he had been arrested. But the protesting junior doctors didn’t let the opportunity go. The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) issued a statement on social media, raising 10 questions with respect to Roy’s statement. Kinjal Nanda, one of the popular faces of the doctors’ protests and the front, demanded a clarification over what Roy had claimed.
Soon after, a counter organisation, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Association (WBJDA)—allegedly set up by resident doctors sympathetic to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and positioned against the WBJDF—issued a statement condemning Nanda.
Atanu Biswas, a member of the WBJDA, accused Nanda and his front of aligning their statement with that of the accused. “The WBJDF is yet again proving its hypocrisy. We condemn it,” Biswas said in a social media statement.
The WBJDA is a fairly new entity, set up on the basis of two primary demands, justice for the deceased R.G. Kar doctor and an audit of the funds collected by WBJDF during the protests.
The WBJDF has, meanwhile, accused the WBJDA of being a stooge of Sandeep Ghosh, the former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for alleged irregularities at the institution.
The festival season in Bengal, starting from Durga Puja and concluding with Diwali and Kali Puja, had diluted the spark in the protests to an extent. This happened especially after the protesters met chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat and decided to withdraw their hunger strike.
But with the festivities now over, the WBJDF has planned a series of events. On November 4, it observed ‘Droheyr Alo’, or the light of protests. It coincided with Roy’s statement and sparked an all-new debate.
Meanwhile, a criminal court in Sealdah announced that the trial in the case would begin on November 11. The court, on November 4, framed charges against Roy. As seen in past cases, framing of charges usually takes months. But given the sensitivity of the R.G. Kar case, the agencies have worked to ensure that the charges were framed within 87 days of the crime. If held guilty, Roy can challenge the court’s verdict.
The postgraduate trainee doctor was found raped and murdered inside a seminar hall of the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The case was initially being investigated by the Kolkata Police, which arrested Roy on August 10. The CBI took over on orders of the Calcutta High Court and, on October 7, submitted a charge-sheet in the Sealdah court under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s Sections 64 (punishment for rape), 66 (punishment for causing death or resulting in a persistent vegetative state) and 103(1) (punishment for murder).
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