Sources claimed the victim’s family was offered Rs 10 lakh as compensation, but the family refused to confirm this amount. On Thursday, the CBI recorded the parents’ statements and took a handwritten diary of the victim.
The father recalled that she had studied two years to secure a spot in a government college to pursue MD in Chest Medicine. She had two options – JNM Kalyani Medical College and RG Kar. “We all thought, with RG Kar, she would be in a metro city with better facilities. So, despite the distance, she went for it. It would have been better for her to choose JNM. Is this why we sent her to a state-run government hospital in Kolkata?” he asked.
“Why would we take money? We have rejected the compensation and won’t take any in the future too,” he said, adding that he considers “everyone standing with us” as his “sons and daughters”.
The father said that the CBI has assured the family that the accused will be arrested at the earliest and awarded strict punishment.
Her parents and relatives describe the victim as someone who always wanted to be a doctor.
“She secured a good rank in both medical and engineering entrance exams, but chose to follow her heart and study medicine,” her father said. Before RG Kar, she initially joined a hospital in Malda but later opted for one in Nadia due to its proximity to home. “She had graduated with an MBBS degree in 2018,” he recalled.
On the day of the incident, she was the on-call duty doctor in the chest medicine department.
The incident has triggered massive outrage with people from diverse fields supporting the family seeking justice.
“The brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata is a chilling reminder that even those who dedicate their lives to healing and saving others are not immune to the horrors of violence. It is beyond tragic that someone who vowed to protect and care for others fell victim to such a heinous act. Rapists must be punished with the full severity of the law. Every woman has the right to safety, freedom, and respect,” former Indian cricketer Mithali Raj posted on her X handle.
DMK Member of Parliament Kanimozhi took to X to express her solidarity on Thursday.
“The entire country is shaken by the gruesome incident of rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata. The details of the cruel and inhuman act against her shocks us to our core. We are forced to think that if any woman is safe anywhere in India.We should stand up and act…The list of those killed for merely being women didn’t start in Delhi’s Nirbhaya, or in Hathras, or in Kathua, or in Unnao or in Manipur, or in Kolkata or the countless others we haven’t heard! I stand with the victim’s family in this unbearable pain. The culprits should be brought to justice and given such a punishment that it is presented as an example in society,” she wrote.
Actor Ayushmann Khurrana took to Instagram, penning a poem in support of the female doctor from West Bengal.
The case is now being probed by the CBI under the Calcutta High Court’s monitoring. The accused who was initially arrested by Kolkata Police is now under the custody of CBI.
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