RG Kar brutality: 100 days today, docs line up protest meets at several parts of city
Telegraph | 17 November 2024
A protest gathering at the Shyambazar five-point-crossing, a cycle rally from Sodepur to Shyambazar and 100 seconds of silence, the junior doctors’ front and senior doctors’ associations have lined up several protests on Sunday evening to mark 100 days since the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
“It will be 100 days now. When are we going to get justice? We are again asking people to take to the streets to demand justice for Abhaya,” said Rumelika Kumar, a postgraduate trainee at the All India Institute of Public Health and Hygiene.
“We do not yet know the motive of the crime. We are disappointed with the CBI chargesheet. But we are not losing hope. We are looking forward to the trial in the lower court.”
The trial started at the Sealdah court on November 11. Till now, nine people have deposed. Many more are due. They include the slain doctor’s colleagues, senior doctors and police officials.
Sunday’s Shyambazar protest will begin at 9pm. The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) has given the call. “The protest gathering will be followed by speeches and cultural programmes,” said a junior doctor.
The junior doctors have requested common people to join them.
The Abhaya Mancha, a forum of doctors and other citizens protesting the rape and murder, will organise a cycle rally from the residence of the 31-year-old junior doctor to Shyambazar. The mother of the doctor who was raped and murdered on August 9 will hand over a symbolic torch to the cyclists.
The rally will begin from Sodepur at 5pm. It will pass through BT Road, Chiria More, Dum Dum and reach Shyambazar. At the end, 100 torches will be handed over to representatives from various districts. They will carry the symbol of flame to their districts. This will be followed by 100 seconds of silence.
“We want to spread the fire of protests across the state. We will hand over the torches to representatives from the districts. We will also participate in the protest gathering being organised by the WBJDF as they have called people from all sections of society to join,” said Tamonas Chaudhuri, a senior doctor and a member of the joint platform of doctors (JPD), an umbrella organisation of several senior doctors’ associations.
On Saturday, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Association, an outfit of junior doctors different from the WBJDF, mailed the chief secretary requesting a meeting with the state’s top bureaucrat. They mentioned nine demands, some of which are justice for Abhaya, speedy trial and punishing the guilty by January 26.