The parents of the trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that several interns and physicians from the hospital may be involved in the crime, an officer said on Friday.

The parents also gave the CBI the names of people who they suspect to be involved in their daughter’s rape and murder at the state-run hospital. The CBI is investigating the case under an order from the Calcutta High Court.

“The parents told us that they suspect the involvement of multiple people behind the sexual assault and murder of their daughter. They have given names of a few interns and doctors who worked with her at the hospital,” a CBI officer told news agency PTI.

The CBI is prioritising the questioning of these individuals, as well as officers from the Kolkata Police who were part of the initial investigation.

“We have identified at least 30 suspects and have started questioning them,” the CBI officer said.

The CBI today summoned a house staff member and two post-graduate trainees who were on duty with the doctor the night she was raped and murdered. The CBI took the former hospital principal, Dr Sandip Ghosh, for questioning.

Dr Ghosh had resigned two days after the woman’s body was found. He said he feared being attacked and sought protection from the Calcutta High Court, which directed him to approach a single Bench.

The CBI made the arrested accused – a civic volunteer – walk through a reconstruction of the crime scene using an advanced 3D method in the seminar hall of the hospital, the officer said. The body of the post-graduate trainee was found in the seminar room on August 9.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today accused the opposition CPI(M) and the BJP of orchestrating vandalism at RG Kar Hospital and trying to distort the truth behind the rape-murder of the woman doctor.

“We want the truth to come out, but some quarters are spreading lies to mislead people. Attempts are being made to hide the truth by circulating fake news on social media. We condemn these activities. We want the culprits to be punished,” she said while addressing a rally.

In a strong retort to her, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia called the Opposition bloc INDIA leaders “political vultures” who speak out on crimes against women as per their political convenience. Mr Bhatia termed Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Manish Sisodia, Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders of the INDIA bloc “political vultures”, and said they should rise above their vote bank politics and “break their silence” on such heinous crimes.

“This silence will cost the INDIA bloc dearly. These people are not politicians or public leaders, they are political vultures who speak out on crimes against sisters and daughters after seeing which state government is there,” he said, adding law and order has collapsed in Bengal.

“Now the case has come to the CBI. Soon all the guilty will be given the harshest punishment, no accused will be spared, no matter how big a leader is protecting them,” the BJP spokesperson said.

Protests are being held across the country by medical students and doctors, demanding a law to ensure safety in hospitals and workplaces of medical professionals.

With inputs from PTI

In caustic comments directed at the West Bengal government after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata hospital and the subsequent vandalism in the campus, Governor CV Ananda Bose has said “vandals and scandals” are marring civic life in the state.

Mincing no words in a wide-ranging interview with NDTV on Friday, the West Bengal governor held Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee responsible for the situation in the state, claimed women medical students have told him that their families want them to leave the profession, and said it was disheartening that such incidents were taking place in a land where one of its most illustrious sons had spoken of the mind being without fear.

Mr Bose also said that he has opened a home in the Raj Bhavan, named after the 31-year-old trainee doctor who was raped and killed at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last week. The woman has been given the name ‘Abhaya’ (fearless) and the governor said students who feel threatened will be valued guests at the ‘Abhaya Home’. 

To a question on the politics that has come to surround the handling of the investigation and the protests by doctors and medical students, the governor said, “Scandals and vandals are marring the civic life of Bengal. I was interacting with some medical students. They told me, ‘Please deliver us from the fear psychosis. Please give us protection. We have no security inside the campus and now there is no security outside.’ That is the wailing of the youth, particularly those in the medical profession.”

“Some of the girl students told me they have nowhere to go, they have no security. ‘Our parents are asking us to leave the profession, give back the bond money. Come back. Life is more important than this,’ they told me,” he said, adding that a girl was afraid the “goons” would follow her to her rural posting. 

‘What Bengal Thinks Today…’

Stating that youth are neither creations of the past nor custodians of the present, Mr Bose said they are the creators of the future and it was distressing to see them having to plead for their security like this. 

“What happens on the street in the name of politics is none of my business. But the fact remains that there is a growing fear in Bengal’s society. There is violence everywhere. And all this is happening in Bengal, about which Gopalkrishna Gokhale once said, ‘What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow’. Is this the same Bengal about which Rabindranath Tagore said, ‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high’? Democracy is plummeting into mobocracy. That is the distressing spectacle that we see around us. That’s what worries me as a governor,” he said.

Abhaya Home

The governor said he has faith in the CBI, which is investigating the case, and detailed a three-pronged approach that he has taken to ensure that the students’ grievances are addressed.

He said he has utilised his powers under Article 167 of the Constitution and given instructions to the chief minister, apart from taking up the matter with the Centre.

The third measure, an interim one, is the opening of the ‘Abhaya Home’ at Raj Bhavan, the governor’s official residence. 

“Any student who feels threatened can come here. They will be honoured guests, valued guests of the governor. Whatever other long-term measures are to be taken, I have already taken up with the state government as well as with the central government, including adequate legislation guaranteeing security for medicos and paramedics… Everything that is possible for confidence building will be done,” Mr Bose emphasised.

President’s Rule?

Employing wordplay and keeping his cards close to his chest while answering a question on the opposition’s demand for President’s Rule in West Bengal, the governor said, “Demand is demand, let’s see what the supply is. As governor, I would like to be circumspect on such issues. The Constitution has many options. I reserve my options at this moment… I do not want to come out in the public domain about what I’m going to do next under the Constitution of India”. 

‘Chief Minister Responsible 1st, 2nd and 3rd’

Holding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee responsible for what is happening in West Bengal, the Governor said that while the cabinet has collective responsibility, the buck stops with her. 

“The cabinet has collective responsibility. Whatever happens in the state, the first responsibility is that of the chief minister, the second responsibility is that of the chief minister and the third responsibility is that of the chief minister,” he said.

Mr Bose insisted he has been getting frantic calls from medical professionals all over India, who have told him they are afraid. 

“The medical fraternity stood as a one-man army against Covid and saved this country. We owe it to them. They don’t deserve such treatment. It is said medicines can cure diseases but only a doctor can cure patients. That is the importance of the medical fraternity, including the paramedics. We cannot let them down,” he stressed.