• Kolkata doctor rape-murder: Aparna joins stir, slams police over suicide claim
    Indian Express | 14 August 2024
  • Eminent Bengali filmmaker and social activist Aparna Sen on Tuesday expressed solidarity with those staging a protest over the rape and murder of a junior woman doctors at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital by joining the demonstrators there.

    Sen questioned the initial claim of the Kolkata Police and the hospital authorities (as communicated with the victim’s parents) that the woman doctor died by suicide even as her body had multiple injuries.

    The veteran filmmaker said, “I am here as a citizen. I feel ashamed. I am shocked to hear that civic volunteers can have unhindered access to the hospital premises at midnight. I am shocked to hear that a woman health staffer has no safety inside the hospital. I am concerned about women’s safety.”

    “She was raped and killed in a brutal manner. Was there an attempt to hide the truth, to deflect focus from the incident?” she questioned.

    Sen directly reached the RG Kar Hospital campus even as intellectuals and civil society members took out a rally from Shyambazar to the medical facility as part of an initiative by the Shilpi Sanskritik Kormi Buddhijibi Manch, a platform of rights activists and artists.

    On the hospital premises, she faced a protest by a section of those present there.

    After talking to the protesters, the filmmaker said, “There should be an investigation into the role of the police as well. They need to be held accountable. Why did they term the incident a suicide first and at whose behest? Why was the autopsy done in the hospital where the incident happened? We want answers to all these questions.”

    The government must take measures to ensure safety of doctors, especially women, at the hospital at the earliest, she added.

    Sen said, “I came here despite being indisposed. This is the time we all must stand together to lodge our protests against such attacks. Such incidents should not happen again.”

    Singer Pallab Kirtania, who accompanied Sen, said, “The demand of judicial probe by the doctors and other staff members is justified. We are with them.”

    Rights activist Sujata Bhadra and educationist Miratun Nahar also visited the hospital as part of the solidarity initiative.

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