Kolkata:

A bust to honour the junior doctor raped and killed at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital in August has triggered a row, with many supporting its installation but others, including ruling Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh, calling it “disgusting”, “disrespectful” to the woman’s memory, and “the worst thing ever”.

The fibreglass bust – titled ‘Abhaya: Cry of the Hour’ and installed at the hospital and made by sculptor Bhaskar Sai – shows a woman screaming in agony with her head thrown back and eyes wide open.

It was installed Wednesday morning after a protest march by junior doctors from various city medical colleges on the occasion of ‘Mahalaya‘. This is an auspicious day that normally falls a week before Durga Puja and marks the transition from the inauspicious ‘pitri paksha‘ to ‘devi paksha‘.

Doctors who have participated in the nearly two-month long protest against the horrific crime, demanding, among other things, increased security on hospital campuses, told reporters the bust “is not of the victim… but a symbol of pain and torture she went through… and the ongoing protests”.

Some welcomed the bust; one X user, @senktk1979, suggested it may be “required as we humans forget everything… (this will not) allow us to forget this incident” and another, @PaulRhakho, raged, “Don’t remove till justice is done… let the world know India is not safe for women…”

This is extremely disgusting and disrespectful.
Letting the Criminals walk free without any remorse and allegations on 1 hand
And putting this disgusting statue up on the other?
‘Cry of the hour’ my foot!

— DrHumorless (@DrHumorless) October 3, 2024

However, not everyone agrees.

Mr Ghosh posted on X that “the installation of this statue in the name of Tilottama (the sobriquet given to the murdered doctor) is against the spirit of the Supreme Court pronouncement”.

“No responsible person can do that… not even in the name of art. There will be protests and demands for justice but the statue with the girl’s face of pain is not right,” he said.

On his side of the fence, one X user said, “Our country is beyond repair.”

Our country is beyond repair

— Bhushan (@Shitpost_44) October 3, 2024

“Speechless at how insensitive this is… to have one’s pain immortalised, to only be known for being sexually violated… I hope this disgusting statue is destroyed,” another user said.

“I wish… The mob should attack this sculpture first. Shameful design. No one wants to see a sculpture of someone in pain… instead they could have created a sculpture in which Goddess Durga beheads the rapist as capital punishment for his mistake…” a third user raged.

Last month the Supreme Court ordered free online database Wikipedia to remove the name and photo of the doctor; the site had identified the doctor in an entry about the shocking RG Kar killing.

READ | Top Court Orders Wikipedia To Remove Kolkata Horror Victim’s Name

However, Indian laws do not permit release of rape victims and survivors’ identities, and a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud reminded owners Wikimedia Foundation of this fact, stating, “The identity of the victim should not be revealed in any way. Wikipedia should immediately remove photo and content revealing her identity,” the bench said, directing deletion from social media too.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday doctors protesting the RG Kar killing resumed their ‘indefinite’ strike, pressing, once again, for demands that include ensuring their safety at all hospitals and clinics in the state.

READ | “Compelled To…”: Bengal Doctors Resume Strike Over RG Kar Horror

They also criticised the “slow”-paced CBI investigation, saying, “We have seen many times before… CBI has been unable to reach conclusions and allows real culprits to go free due to delays…”

READ | Kolkata Rape Murder: Junior Doctors Resume Work After 42 Days

Ten days earlier the junior doctors had stood down their month-long agitation, after finally meeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and returned to provide essential and emergency services but not in outpatient departments. They had then given the state a week to fulfil their demands.

READ | Bengal Replaces Kolkata Police Chief, 2 Others On Doctors’ Demand

Ongoing CBI Investigation

The junior doctor was found dead in a seminar room of the hospital early August 9. The killing sparked furious protests and was compared to the Nirbhaya rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012.

The CBI, which took over the case after being ordered to by the Calcutta High Court, after it overruled a deadline for the police set by the Chief Minister, has arrested Dr Sandip Ghosh, who was the RG Kar Hospital chief at the time, before he resigned claiming “moral responsibility”.

READ | CBI’s Cover-Up Claims Against Ex Principal, Cop In Kolkata Horror

Ghosh has been arrested in connection with alleged financial irregularities in running the hospital, and has been subject to extensive interrogation and a lie-detector test. The CBI has also taken into custody a civilian volunteer with Kolkata Police – Sanjoy Roy – who is the prime accused.

The doctor’s killing has sparked a massive political squabble with the Trinamool and the Chief Minister under severe pressure from the opposition BJP and civil society activists.

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Kolkata:

It was just another morning at the middle class household in north Kolkata. The daughter, who had made her parents proud by becoming a doctor and was studying further, was at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for a long shift. Around 11.30 pm the previous night, she called her mother and spoke to her, as always. Her mother did not prolong the call. She would have, if she knew it was her last.

On the morning of August 9, three calls within half an hour shattered their little world of contentment and set them off on a fight for justice. NDTV has now accessed audio of the three calls — in Bengali — that parents of the 31-year-old doctor raped and murdered at the Kolkata hospital received that morning. Their voices capture the shock and confusion two elderly parents went through before they reached the hospital to find their daughter dead and brutalised.

The First Call

The parents of the rape-murder victim have told the court that the first call came at 10.53 am. The caller was a woman, who has since been identified as the Assistant Superintendent of the hospital.

Victim’s Father: What has happened, please tell me

Caller: Her condition is very bad, please come as soon as possible

Victim’s Father: Please tell us what has happened

Caller: The doctor will say that, you come fast.

Victim’s Father: Who are you?

Caller: I am the assistant super, not doctor

Victim’s Father: There are no doctors there?

Caller: I am the assistant super. We have brought your daughter to the Emergency. You come and contact us.

Victim’s Mother: What happened to her, she was on duty

Caller: You come fast, as soon as possible.

The Second Call

In the second call, a male voice is heard. By then, the parents have already left for the hospital.

Caller: I am speaking from RG Kar (hospital)

Victim’s Mother: Yes, please say

Caller: You are coming, right?

Victim’s Mother: Yes, we are coming. How is she now?

Caller: You come, we will talk, come to RG Kar Hospital’s chest department HOD

Victim’s mother: Okay

The Third Call

It was in the third call, when the victim’s parents were told that she had died by suicide. This has come up repeatedly in court and judges have asked why the parents were misled. This call was from Assistant Superintendent, who made the first call.

Victim’s Father: Hello

Caller: This is the Assistant Super.

Victim’s Father: Yes

Caller: The matter is that your daughter has probably died by suicide. She is dead, police are here, we are all here, please come as soon as possible.

Victim’s Father: We are coming, right away

Victim’s Mother (screams in the background): My daughter is no more.

The hospital administration’s communication with the victim’s parents is one aspect of this horrifying incident that has repeatedly come under scrutiny in both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court. In their petition in the high court, the parents said they were made to wait for three hours. They suspect that this delay was intentional.

Kolkata Police, however, has contested this. Their timeline claims that the parents reached the hospital at 1 pm and they were taken to the seminar hall, where the body was found, 10 minutes later. The courts have also questioned why the hospital administration, led by then principal Dr Sandip Ghosh, did not file a formal police complaint and the cops had to register an unnatural death case. An FIR was filed only late at night after the victim’s father filed a formal complaint.

Speaking to NDTV, the victim’s father had described the devastating moment when they saw her daughter’s body. “Only I know what I went through when I saw her. There were no clothes on her body. She was only draped in a bedsheet. Her legs were apart, with one hand on her head,” he had said.  

As protests continue and the politics surrounding the issue deepens, the parents’ voices over these three call serve as a reminder to how at the heart of this massive row lies a personal tragedy, a family’s loss of a dream, a dream that their daughter was turning to reality.