Kolkata doctor-rape murder: Family narrates August 9 ‘gut-wrenching’ details; politicians react

The family of the 31-year-old trainee doctor, who was brutally raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, shared the devastating experience they endured upon learning about the August 9 incident.

The family, in a interview with Lallantop, alleged that they were told that their daughter had died by suicide and were left waiting outside the hospital for three hours before being allowed to see her body.

The father of the trainee doctor said when he first received a call from the hospital, they (hospital authorities) said “our daughter has died by suicide and we must come immediately”.

Initially, the Kolkata Police had suspected it to be a suicide, but later changed its version.

One of the relatives who went with the parents to the hospital, said the victim’s mother was inconsolable after learning about her daughter, India Today reported.

“The parents pleaded before them (hospital authorities) to show them their daughter’s face. But still they were made to wait for three hours,” the relative is heard saying in the interview.

“After three hours, they allowed the father to go inside and see her body. He was only allowed to click a picture, which he showed us when he came outside. She had no clothes on her body. Her legs were 90 degrees apart… this cannot happen unless the pelvic girdle breaks, which means she was torn apart,” India Today quoted the relative as saying.

Reacting to the interview, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “This is the most gut wrenching and heartbreaking retelling of what the parents of the lady PGT doctor in RG Kar Medical College went through and what her parents faced.”

The fast track courts should not just punish the accused but all those who tried to cover up the gruesome crime by calling it suicide. Nothing short of death penalty should be the case made by CBI, she added. “How many more Nirbhayas before women’s safety will be prioritised by states& centre?” Priyanka Chaturvedi asked.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also reacted to the victim’s family account.

“The chilling details of brutality the junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital. Never forget. Never forgive. TMC & INDI alliance.”

Sharing the video, Aam Aadmi Party MP Swati Maliwal wrote in Hindi, “The pain of this victim should be the pain of the whole country. Today she is someone else’s daughter, tomorrow she could be from any house.”

What post-mortem report revealed

The post-mortem report of the trainee doctor has revealed that she was subjected to “genital torture”.

The report indicated that the accused, Sanjoy Roy, had hit her so hard that the glasses of her spectacles shattered, shards piercing her eyes.

The report stated, “There was bleeding from both her eyes and mouth and injuries over the face. The victim was also bleeding from her private parts. She also has injuries in her belly, left leg… neck, in her right hand, ring finger and… lips.”

The body of the woman post-graduate trainee was found in the hospital’s seminar room of West Bengal government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Friday morning. Sanjoy Roy, an outsider frequenting the hospital premises, was arrested on Saturday.

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 3am and 5am on Friday.

On Tuesday, the Calcutta high court observed that the rape and murder of the doctor was “so gruesome”. Hearing a clutch of petitions on the incident, which has triggered outrage across the nation, the court said protesting doctors were justified in expressing their emotions.

“We cannot gag the press…what assurance are you (State) giving to doctors? They are hurt. The incident is so gruesome. They (doctors) are justified in expressing their emotions,” the court said, per Bar and Bench.

The court has directed the former principal of the hospital, Dr Sandip Ghosh, to go on a long leave. The doctor had resigned on Monday.