Doctors gift a ‘spine’ to Kolkata Police Commissioner, demand his resignation

Junior doctors protest police inaction in R.G. Kar case, meet Kolkata Police Commissioner demanding resignation, forming 15-km human chain.

A delegation of junior doctors, protesting against the R.G. Kar rape and murder, met Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) and handed over a letter demanding his resignation. They gifted him a replica of a human spine.

Hundreds of doctors, on a night-long protest near the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar, have been demanding the resignation of Mr. Goyal alleging police inaction in the case. After a 22-hour impasse, the police removed guardrails and barricades, and allowed the delegation of 22 doctors to meet the Commissioner.

While protesters took out demonstrations from nearby Phears Lane towards Lalbazar, the delegation representing the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front met Mr. Goyal in his office and held discussions for an hour. 

Aniket Mahato, a junior doctor at the R.G. Kar hospital, and one of the representatives, said the Commissioner “gracefully received” their deputation document demanding his resignation.

“He admitted failure of the police regarding what happened on August 12 (‘renovation work’ near the crime scene) and August 14 (attack on R.G. Kar hospital). We discussed other irregularities surrounding cordoning off of the crime scene and evidence tampering,” Dr. Mahato said after the meeting. “He listened to us and said he was satisfied with the work of the police, but if his superiors ask him to resign, he would do so gladly,” he said.

“We read out our list of demands to the Police Commissioner, including that of his resignation, and gave him a copy as well. We asked him why the crime scene was violated, and he could not give us satisfactory answers,” Kinjal Nanda, a representative of the junior doctors, said. “Finally, we gave him the human spine replica as a gift and took our leave from there.”

Dr. Mahato and Dr. Nanda said while protesters outside Lalbazar would disperse, the movement demanding justice for the victim would continue.