12 Kolkata: On the day of RG Kar rape-murder judgment, the chest medicine department, where the 31-year-old PGT was found murdered on Aug 9, was virtually shut off from the world. Guarded by the hospital's own security and police, the department that houses the seminar room, which remains sealed, has restricted access.
"Are you a PGT? Please show me your ID card," asked the hospital's security guard to this TOI correspondent at the entrance to the department. The chest medicine department, which houses the crime scene, is still fortified. However, the entry to gastroenterology and the dialysis unit directly opposite on the third floor of the emergency building was unguarded.
Even as colleagues and senior doctors in the department were busy tending to the 26 patients admitted on Monday, there was a murmur of ‘life imprisonment' in the wards right after the punishment was pronounced. "We are not happy with the kind of shoddy probe. We were expecting a death sentence for the culprit who has been convicted so far. But life imprisonment for such a heinous crime has come as a shock," said a colleague of the victim, who was on duty when the Sealdah court pronounced the sentence on Monday.
While normalcy has returned in all other departments of the medical college, the chest medicine department seems to be struggling to recover. The tighter security arrangements, strict visitor screening, and the sealed seminar room constantly remind colleagues of the gruesome crime.
"We don't discuss much about the crime anymore but the pain of losing a colleague in such a brutal crime remains deep in each of us. We hope the investigation will continue until the last person involved in the crime is caught and booked," said another colleague who followed the court proceedings despite being on duty on Monday.
The number of patients in the chest medicine department, which has over 80 beds, dropped to four to five after Aug 9. "The comparatively empty wards, which were bustling with patients before the incident, are also a constant reminder of the crime. But as the patient count builds up slowly, we are also trying to heal our wounds," said another colleague.
Junior doctors in the department returned to night shifts about two months ago.