Kolkata woman rape-murder: Did doctor pay price for knowing too much, ask parents, colleagues
Times of India | 18 August 2024
Junior doctors at R G Kar continue their protest KOLKATA: Did the 31-year-old PGT doctor at R G Kar Hospital know something she was not supposed to? Did she have to pay the price for knowing those "secrets"? Was the rape and murder planned to silence her? These are some of the questions raised by her parents and colleagues, who have also been insisting that Sanjoy Roy, the only person arrested so far, could be "only a small fry or even a scapegoat and that real culprits are yet to be apprehended". Top Picks For YouKolkata doctor rape-murder: Post-mortem report highlights brutal assault, confirms multiple injuries, signs of struggleKolkata doctor death: Who is Sanjay Roy? Civic volunteer arrested in RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case
Details that police have so far pieced together from the deceased doctor's diary and from her parents indicated that she was under tremendous stress and work pressure the past few weeks. Being a second-year PGT doctor, she had already spent more than a year at the govt medical college and hospital. At such institutes, every junior doctor works 36 hours at a stretch. So, some questioned, the reason behind the sudden pressure of the past few weeks that she wrote about in the diary. "We suspect that it was not a simple case of mere rape and murder or an accidental victim. She was targeted. How did the civic volunteer know she was in the seminar hall alone at that point of time? He could be a part of a plot planted by some big fish," alleged a colleague.
"There is a murmur of a possible drug siphoning racket from her department that she was trying to expose. There is a reason for us to suspect this as she was an upright person," said another colleague. Colleagues said "punishment overwork" was an "SOP", perfected under the watch of the previous R G Kar management, led by Sandip Ghosh. Faculty members, who did not toe Ghosh's lines, were shifted to another medical college and MBBS students were failed.
Some R G Kar insiders said the PGT doctor was extremely hard-working and focussed on her career. She always wanted to be a doctor and chose medicine though she had also cracked the engineering entrance exam. She was elated when she secured a PG seat at R G Kar Medical College to study chest medicine. On the fateful day, after being informed about their daughter's death, the woman's parents had told the police that she had told them about tremendous work pressure. From her diary entries, it was evident that the second-year PGT doctor had started keeping a journal of late and there, she had reportedly written that some colleagues were dumping a lot of work on her. Before the case was transferred to the CBI, the parents also reportedly told police their daughter might have learnt about something in the department that she was not supposed to.
Colleagues and officials pointed at malpractices at the hospital and said anyone who dared to stand up against the irregularities, were "meted out some form of punishment".