What purpose does this bandh serve, ask victim’s grieving parents after CBI visit
Times of India | 29 August 2024
Kolkata: The parents of the second-year PGT doctor of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, who was found raped and murdered on Aug 9, questioned the very purpose of calling a strike in response to the crime committed against her daughter.
“What will happen by calling a strike? We are neither for nor against the strike. We have only one request: No politics, we only want justice,” the victim’s mother told reporters on Wednesday, the day a CBI team again visited their Sodepur home to record their statements for the third time.
The grieving family pointed out that the bandh might not be the most effective way to seek justice for their daughter. Instead, they said, such shutdowns and the consequent accidental disaster could lead to disruption without necessarily bringing about the desired attention to the actual crime. “We believe the ongoing protests across the country may better serve in ensuring justice and improving safety measures for healthcare professionals. We stand by those protesters, including students and junior doctors, whom we consider our own children. The movement should be on till justice is served,” the father said.
About the shooting in Bhatpara, he added: “We do not want any gunfire or anyone to lose their life.”
Supporting Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who on Wednesday raised questions about CBI’s probe as “a long time had passed”, the victim’s father said, “Absolutely, he (Banerjee) spoke well. We also think pressure on CBI is needed. We must have faith in the law as well as the CBI probe. But the CBI must live up to its reputation. We want a conclusion to this probe, and we seek justice at the earliest.
The CBI officers, who visited the victim’s home, reportedly assured the parents of their “utmost seriousness with the probe”. “They(CBI) have taken some statements. They said they were making their best efforts. So, we must keep our faith in the CBI investigation,” the father said.
The parents also raised concerns about police’s handling of the crime scene. The father alleged the crime scene was not cordoned off by police and that they were allowed to identify their daughter nearly three-and-a-half hours after arriving at the hospital. “We arrived at the hospital around 12.10 pm on Aug 9. Despite our repeated appeals, we were allowed to enter the seminar hall to see my daughter around 3.30 pm. At that time, we did not see the crime scene cordoned off by police. The area was nearly empty, with only a few senior police officers standing nearby,” he claimed. Senior KP officers, however, insisted they had cordoned off the entire portion of the crime scene.