More chilling details have emerged in the rape and murder of the trainee doctor in Kolkata, with the post-mortem report indicating that the accused had hit her so hard that the glasses of her spectacles shattered, shards piercing her eyes.

The 31-year-old post-graduate trainee, who was working at the city’s renowned state government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, was raped and murdered inside a seminar hall in the institution and her body was found on Friday morning. Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer working with the Kolkata Police, has been arrested for the crime.

The post-mortem report, which was handed over to the family of the trainee doctor by the Kolkata Police on Monday, revealed that she had suffered several injuries. Cuts were found on her hands and face. 

The report states that shards of glass from the spectacles likely caused the eye injuries that were found on her body.  

“Homicidal injuries are antemortem in nature with indication of sexual penetration,” the report stated. This means that the wounds were inflicted on the trainee doctor while she was still alive and injuries on her private parts indicated that she was raped. 

After savagely hurting and sexually assaulting her, the accused killed the trainee doctor by throttling and smothering her. The report estimates the time of death to be between 3 and 5 am on Friday.

The police have said that after the murder, Sanjoy Roy – who was not associated with the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, but frequented it – went home and slept in late. Officials told news agency PTI that he washed the clothes he was wearing to destroy evidence and that his shoes, with blood stains on them, were found during a search.

Protests

The horrific crime has sparked widespread protests and doctors in several cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, have said all elective services will be halted till the investigation into the case is complete. 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday set a deadline for the Kolkata Police to solve the case, warning that the investigation will be handed over to the CBI if other accused, if any, are not arrested by then.

“If there are more accused… and all are not arrested by Sunday… we will hand over the case to the CBI, even though their success rate is low,” the chief minister said after meeting the victim’s family.

The Kolkata Police had said they are certain any other culprits would be arrested in the next four to five days. 

“We are in touch with family members. We will stay in touch and share progress with them. If, even after that, the family is not satisfied then whatever madam (Chief Minister Banerjee) has said will happen,” Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal said.

The government today said it will hold further consultations and publish a fresh draft of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill after certain provisions of the previous draft raised concerns among online content creators as it sought to club them with OTT or digital news broadcasters, bringing them under the ambit of the ministry’s Content and Advertisement Code.

The previous draft bill and explanatory notes were placed in the public domain in November last year.

Media bodies such as DigiPub and the Editors Guild of India claimed that digital media organisations and civil society associations were not consulted on the move.

The draft bill also drew criticism from the opposition Congress with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accusing the government of trying to “gag” digital media, social media, OTT platforms and those who write and speak in a private capacity by bringing in the bill.

The government, on the other hand, has maintained that the bill is still at the drafting stage and consultation with stakeholders is currently underway.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today said that additional time has been given to stakeholders till October 15.

“The Ministry is holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders on the draft bill. A fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations,” the ministry said in a post on X.

The bill seeks to directly regulate streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar as over-the-top, or OTT, broadcasting services.

The provisions in the draft bill would have made it mandatory for individual online content creators to appoint a grievance redressal officer and a content evaluation committee once they crossed a certain number of subscribers.

If cleared, it would replace Cable Television Network Act as well as a slew of policies and guidelines drawn up later to plug holes.