Kolkata doctor's rape and murder in hospital alarm India (2024)

Kolkata doctor's rape and murder in hospital alarm India (1)Kolkata doctor's rape and murder in hospital alarm India (2)Getty Images

Early on Friday morning, a 31-year-old female trainee doctor retired to sleep in a seminar hall after a gruelling day at one of India’s oldest hospitals.

It was the last time she was seen alive.

The next morning, her colleagues discovered her half-naked body on the podium, bearing extensive injuries. Police later arrested a hospital volunteer worker in connection with what they say is a case of rape and murder at Kolkata’s 138-year-old RG Kar Medical College.

Tens of thousands of women in Kolkata and across West Bengal state are expected to participate in a 'Reclaim the Night' march at midnight on Wednesday, demanding the "independence to live in freedom and without fear". The march takes place just before India's Independence Day on Thursday. Outraged doctors have struck work both in the city and across India, demanding a strict federal law to protect them.

The tragic incident has again cast a spotlight on the violence against doctors and nurses in the country. Reports of doctors, regardless of gender, being assaulted by patients and their relatives have gained widespread attention. Women - who make up nearly 30% of India’s doctors and 80% of the nursing staff - are more vulnerable than their male colleagues.

The crime in the Kolkata hospital last week exposed the alarming security risks faced by the medical staff in many of India's state-run health facilities.

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At RG Kar Hospital, which sees over 3,500 patients daily, the overworked trainee doctors - some working up to 36 hours straight - had no designated rest rooms, forcing them to seek rest in a third-floor seminar room.

Reports indicate that the arrested suspect, a volunteer worker with a troubled past, had unrestricted access to the ward and was captured on CCTV. Police allege that no background checks were conducted on the volunteer.

"The hospital has always been our first home; we only go home to rest. We never imagined it could be this unsafe. Now, after this incident, we're terrified," says Madhuparna Nandi, a junior doctor at Kolkata’s 76-year-old National Medical College.

Dr Nandi’s own journey highlights how female doctors in India's government hospitals have become resigned to working in conditions that compromise their security.

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At her hospital, where she is a resident in gynaecology and obstetrics, there are no designated rest rooms and separate toilets for female doctors.

“I use the patients’ or the nurses' toilets if they allow me. When I work late, I sometimes sleep in an empty patient bed in the ward or in a cramped waiting room with a bed and basin,” Dr Nandi told me.

She says she feels insecure even in the room where she rests after 24-hour shifts that start with outpatient duty and continue through ward rounds and maternity rooms.

One night in 2021, during the peak of the Covid pandemic, some men barged into her room and woke her by touching her, demanding, “Get up, get up. See our patient.”

“I was completely shaken by the incident. But we never imagined it would come to a point where a doctor could be raped and murdered in the hospital,” Dr Nandi says.

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What happened on Friday was not an isolated incident. The most shocking case remains that of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse at a prominent Mumbai hospital, who was left in a persistent vegetative state after being raped and strangled by a ward attendant in 1973. She died in 2015, after 42 years of severe brain damage and paralysis. More recently, in Kerala, Vandana Das, a 23-year-old medical intern, was fatally stabbed with surgical scissors by a drunken patient last year.

In overcrowded government hospitals with unrestricted access, doctors often face mob fury from patients' relatives after a death or over demands for immediate treatment. Kamna Kakkar, an anaesthetist, remembers a harrowing incident during a night shift in an intensive care unit (ICU) during the pandemic in 2021 at her hospital in Haryana in northern India.

“I was the lone doctor in the ICU when three men, flaunting a politician’s name, forced their way in, demanding a much in-demand controlled drug. I gave in to protect myself, knowing the safety of my patients was at stake," Dr Kakkar told me.

Namrata Mitra, a Kolkata-based pathologist who studied at the RG Kar Medical College, says her doctor father would often accompany her to work because she felt unsafe.

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“During my on-call duty, I took my father with me. Everyone laughed, but I had to sleep in a room tucked away in a long, dark corridor with a locked iron gate that only the nurse could open if a patient arrived,” Dr Mitra wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.

“I’m not ashamed to admit I was scared. What if someone from the ward - an attendant, or even a patient - tried something? I took advantage of the fact that my father was a doctor, but not everyone has that privilege.”

When she was working in a public health centre in a district in West Bengal, Dr Mitra spent nights in a dilapidated one-storey building that served as the doctor’s hostel.

“From dusk, a group of boys would gather around the house, making lewd comments as we went in and out for emergencies. They would ask us to check their blood pressure as an excuse to touch us and they would peek through the broken bathroom windows,” she wrote.

Years later, during an emergency shift at a government hospital, “a group of drunk men passed by me, creating a ruckus, and one of them even groped me”, Dr Mitra said. “When I tried to complain, I found the police officers dozing off with their guns in hand.”

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Things have worsened over the years, says Saraswati Datta Bodhak, a pharmacologist at a government hospital in West Bengal's Bankura district. "Both my daughters are young doctors and they tell me that hospital campuses in the state are overrun by anti-social elements, drunks and touts," she says. Dr Bodhak recalls seeing a man with a gun roaming around a top government hospital in Kolkata during a visit.

India lacks a stringent federal law to protect healthcare workers. Although 25 states have some laws to prevent violence against them, convictions are “almost non-existent”, RV Asokan, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), an organisation of doctors, told me. A 2015 survey by IMA found that 75% of doctors in India have faced some form of violence at work. “Security in hospitals is almost absent,” he says. “One reason is that nobody thinks of hospitals as conflict zones.”

Some states like Haryana have deployed private bouncers to strengthen security at government hospitals. In 2022, the federal government asked the states to deploy trained security forces for sensitive hospitals, install CCTV cameras, set up quick reaction teams, restrict entry to "undesirable individuals" and file complaints against offenders. Nothing much has happened, clearly.

Even the protesting doctors don't seem to be very hopeful. “Nothing will change... The expectation will be that doctors should work round the clock and endure abuse as a norm,” says Dr Mitra. It is a disheartening thought.

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Kolkata doctor's rape and murder in hospital alarm India (2024)

FAQs

Kolkata doctor's rape and murder in hospital alarm India? ›

On August 9, a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital

RG Kar Medical College and Hospital
Radha Gobinda Kar (Bengali: রাধাগোবিন্দ কর; 23 August 1852 – 19 December 1918) was an Indian Bengali physician and philanthropist. R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal is named after him.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Radha_Gobinda_Kar
in Kolkata. A civic volunteer of Kolkata Police was arrested in connection with the crime the next day. The Calcutta High Court handed over the case to the CBI on Tuesday.

What is the doctor case in India? ›

The rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9 has caused nationwide outrage, sparking protests by doctors across the country. During a demonstration against the heinous crime in the early hours of August 15, a mob ransacked parts of the hospital.

What is the case of RG Kar? ›

The postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered on August 9 while on duty at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata. This incident has sparked nationwide strikes and protests by doctors, who are demanding severe punishment for the accused and enhanced safety measures for themselves.

What happens in RG Kar Medical College? ›

The tragic event occurred on August 9 when a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered while on duty. The incident has sparked nationwide strikes and protests from the medical community.

What is the Kolkata case? ›

The case has created a climate of fear among healthcare workers, specially after a mob ransacked R G Kar Medical College in Kolkata where the doctor was raped and murdered. There has also been an alarming nationwide trend of violence against medical professionals.

What exactly happened with the Kolkata doctor? ›

The doctor was murdered and raped inside the hall between 3 am and 5 am. The post-mortem report has revealed that she was subjected to genital torture before being strangled to death. Blood was found to be oozing out of her eyes, mouth and private parts.

Who are the rapists of the Kolkata case? ›

The CBI will conduct a psychological assessment of Sanjay Roy, the accused in a rape-and-murder case of a doctor in Kolkata that has triggered nationwide protests, officials said on Saturday.

What is the Dr. case in Kolkata? ›

The CBI questioned R.G. Kar Medical College's former principal Dr. Sandip Ghosh and summoned a house staff member and two post-graduate trainees. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on August 16 led a rally demanding death penalty for the main accused in the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata's R.G.

What's happening in Kolkata? ›

Events
  • PROMOTED. Daily Ka Kaam Hai By Aakash Gupta. Kala Kunj Auditorium: Kolkata. Stand up Comedy. ...
  • Sunburn Arena Ft. Alan Walker - Kolkata. Venue To Be Announced: Kolkata. Concerts. ...
  • KK Live Forever: The Celebratory Tour - Kolkata. Hard Rock Cafe: Kolkata. Club Gigs. KK Live Forever: The Celebratory Tour - Kolkata.

What is the salary in Father Muller Medical College? ›

Father Muller Medical College Hospital Salaries in India
DesignationAvg Annual Salary
Senior Resident 0 - 2 years exp. (4 salaries) Create Job Alert₹9.9 Lakhs (₹7.2 L/yr - ₹15 L/yr)
Senior Resident Doctor 0 - 4 years exp. (4 salaries) Create Job Alert₹8.8 Lakhs (₹4 L/yr - ₹12 L/yr)
19 more rows

What is the great Kolkata killings? ›

Between August 16 to August 19, 1946, Calcutta witnessed one of the worst episodes of Hindu-Muslim communal violence, which left between 5,000 to 10,000 dead, and some 15,000 wounded. A year before colonial rule in the subcontinent ended, Calcutta (now Kolkata) witnessed a bloodbath which claimed thousands of lives.

Who is the accused in the Kolkata doctor case? ›

Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, has been arrested in relation to the case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will conduct a psychological assessment of Sanjay Roy, the accused in the rape and murder case of a doctor in Kolkata, officials told PTI.

What is the name of Kolkata big jail? ›

The Alipore Jail or Alipore Central Jail, also known as Presidency Correctional Home, is a prison in Alipore, Kolkata, where political prisoners were kept under British rule. It also housed the Alipore Jail Press.

Why doctors are protesting in India? ›

Activists and doctors across India continued to protest on Wednesday to demand justice for a female doctor, who was raped and murdered while on duty in a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Why is there violence against doctors in India? ›

CAUSES OF VIOLENCE

Traditionally in India, medical professionals have been treated with respect by the society. However, the present impression of profit making of few in the profession has crippled the image of the doctors.

Who is the main accused in the Kolkata doctor case? ›

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday started psychological assessment of main accused, Sanjay Roy, in the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor in Kolkata, sources told news agency ANI.

What is the punishment for malpractice case in India? ›

Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) specifies that death from any rash or negligent act done by a registered medical practitioner while performing a medical procedure shall be punished by imprisonment up to two years “and shall also be liable to fine”.

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