West Bengal: Darkness at Noon | Arup Kumar Sen

The brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor on duty in R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024 signified a dark chapter in the history of West Bengal. The protest movement of junior doctors in the wake of this event opened up the hidden world of corruptions as well as ‘threat culture’ prevailing in the health system of the state.

At present, seven junior doctors are on a hunger strike at Esplanade to seek justice with their 10-point charter of demands. About 40 senior doctors from R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, including professors and heads of departments, signed a mass resignation letter on October 8, 2024, to show their solidarity with the juniors on a fast till death.

The first demand in the charter of demands submitted by the junior doctors is justice for the victim ‘Abhaya’ without delay. Another related demand is that inquiry committees be formed in each medical college to punish those involved in threat syndicates. Other than infrastructural and pro-democracy demands, the key demand of the junior doctors signifies that they are against the ‘threat culture’ prevailing in the government medical colleges and hospitals.

On October 8, 2024, the CBI submitted its chargesheet holding Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with Kolkata Police, as the sole accused in the R G Kar case. It is stated in the chargesheet that an interim report in the R G Kar rape-and- murder case by experts from at least five Delhi hospitals of national repute said that the 31-year-old junior doctor died of asphyxia “as a combined effect of throttling (manual strangulation) and smothering.” The interim report further mentioned that the victim “suffered forceful penetrative sexual assault.” (Quoted in The Telegraph, October 9, 2024)

It may be mentioned in this connection that on September 14, 2024, the CBI arrested Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of R G Kar Medical College, and Abhijit Mondol, the then officer-in-charge of local (Tala) police station, in connection with the case for alleged tampering of evidence in the case and for trying to “hush up” the incident. (See The Indian Express, October 9, 2024)

We do not know what role the ‘circumstantial evidence’ will play in the impending verdict of the Supreme Court in the R G Kar case. ‘Darkness at Noon’, the title of the famous/infamous novel by Arthur Koestler, may be the apt metaphor of characterizing the brutal murder of the young on-duty R G Kar doctor in the heart of Kolkata.