Kolkata physician rape and homicide case reside: Docs name pan-India strike as protests swell

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, is main a protest rally, the place she demanded the demise penalty for these discovered responsible within the Kolkata physician’s rape and homicide case.

Tens of hundreds of girls took to the streets throughout India on Wednesday evening in protest over the rape and homicide of a trainee physician at a outstanding state-run hospital in West Bengal.

The most important of the protests passed off in Kolkata itself, the place girls armed with placards, candles and the Indian nationwide flag ushered within the nation’s 78th Independence Day at midnight by demanding justice for the killing of the 31-year-old feminine resident at RG Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital.

The physician can’t be named as a consequence of India’s legal guidelines defending the identification of rape victims, even in demise. Her partially bare physique was found by college students final Friday morning, with an post-mortem later confirming she had been sexually assaulted.

Ladies on the “Reclaim the Night time” protest instructed The Unbiased that they needed swift justice for the sufferer – some are calling for the perpetrator or perpetrators to be given the demise penalty – but additionally a wider looking on violence in opposition to girls and the protection of medical doctors within the nation.

India’s federal Director Basic of Well being Providers has requested all of the heads of state-run hospitals to file a police grievance inside six hours of any incidence of violence.

“Within the occasion of any violence in opposition to any well being care employee whereas on responsibility, the Head of Establishment shall be chargeable for submitting an Institutional FIR [first information report] inside a most of 6 hours of the incident,” the memorandum learn.

The Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), which is in opposition in West Bengal state, has known as on the chief minister to resign following the rape and homicide of a junior physician at a state-run hospital in Kolkata.

The BJP has accused Ms Banerjee of failing to take care of legislation and order after a mob of dozens of males vandalised the hospital the place the lady was discovered useless.

The social gathering’s girls’s department will maintain a candlelight rally at the moment, that may culminate exterior Ms Banerjee’s home.

Bollywood stars have joined the general public outrage over the rape and homicide of a junior physician in Kolkata throughout her 36-hour shift at a state-run hospital.

Hindi movie stars corresponding to Kareena Kapoor Khan, Preity Zinta, Richa Chadha, Alia Bhatt, Swara Bhasker and Tisca Chopra have known as for swift justice for the sufferer.

“One other brutal rape. One other day of realisation that girls should not secure, anyplace,” Ms Bhatt wrote on Instagram.

Ms Bhasker mentioned the crime was a “painful reminder that India isn’t any nation for girls”, including that “the accused should be placed on trial and justice should be served speedily”.

The medical doctors’ strike has left hundreds of low-income sufferers in misery throughout state-run hospitals.

Shyamal Guha, 78, was one such affected person on the RG Kar hospital, who was made to return after spending greater than two hours within the ambulance on the hospital earlier this week.

“My father had a coronary heart assault yesterday, now as a consequence of extra problems the hospital requested us to maneuver him right here. They’re now refusing to take him to the emergency room. If this continues, he’ll die,” Mr Guha’s son, Pradip, mentioned.

Whereas a collection of ambulances made their method into the hospital premises, the sufferers contained in the automobile had been pressured to attend for hours and ultimately return to search out one other hospital. “It’s 4.30pm and RG Kar is the third hospital to have refused me remedy,” mentioned a lady in anguish.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has known as authorities handy a demise penalty to these concerned within the rape and homicide of a 31-year-old junior physician contained in the hospital in Kolkata metropolis final week.

Ms Banerjee, the one girl chief minister in India, will lead a political rally at the moment in Kolkata demanding swift justice for the sufferer.

One suspect has been arrested within the case, a civil volunteer named Sanjay Roy, who’s related to the Kolkata Police.

The case has since been taken over by the federal Central Bureau of Investigation amid requires an unbiased and clear inquiry into the crime.

“Give demise penalty to those that are literally chargeable for the crime however innocents shouldn’t be punsihed,” Ms Banrejee mentioned in her enchantment to the protesting medical doctors on the RG Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital.

The resident medical doctors affiliation of the RG Kar Medical Faculty ceased work on the emergency providers final week.

The Indian Medical Affiliation, the nation’s largest grouping of medics, mentioned it will implement a nationwide shutdown of most departments, besides important providers, for twenty-four hours from Saturday morning, the most important such strike in at the least a decade.

“Docs, particularly girls are weak to violence due to the character of the career. It’s for the authorities to offer for the protection of medical doctors inside hospitals and campuses,” the IMA mentioned in a press release issued on X late.

Huge protests have erupted in India following the rape and homicide of a junior physician throughout her 36-hour shift at a state-run hospital within the jap metropolis of Kolkata.