New Delhi: The family of a 31-year-old trainee doctor, who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, has shared the harrowing ordeal they faced upon learning of the incident on August 9. In an interview with Lallantop, the family said that hospital authorities initially told them that their daughter had died by suicide. They were then made to wait outside the hospital for three hours before being allowed to view her body.
The victim’s father said that when he received the initial call from the hospital, he was told that his daughter had taken her own life and that they should come immediately. At first, the Kolkata Police suspected suicide as the cause of death, but later revised their assessment. A relative who accompanied the parents to the hospital described how the victim’s mother was inconsolable upon hearing the news, according to India Today.
“The parents begged the hospital authorities to let them see their daughter’s face, but they were kept waiting for three hours,” the relative said in the interview.
“After three hours, the father was finally allowed to see her body. He was only permitted to take a photograph, which he showed us afterward. She was unclothed, and her legs were spread at a 90-degree angle… this could only happen if the pelvic girdle was broken, indicating she had been brutally assaulted,” India Today quoted the relative as saying.
Politicians react
Reacting to the interview, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “This is the most gut wrenching and heartbreaking retelling of what the parents of the lady PGT doctor in RG Kar Medical College went through and what her parents faced.”
“The fast track courts should not just punish the accused but all those who tried to cover up the gruesome crime by calling it suicide. Nothing short of death penalty should be the case made by CBI, she added. “How many more Nirbhayas before women’s safety will be prioritised by states& centre?” Priyanka Chaturvedi asked.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also reacted to the victim’s family account. “The chilling details of brutality the junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital. Never forget. Never forgive. TMC & INDI alliance.”
Sharing the video, Aam Aadmi Party MP Swati Maliwal wrote in Hindi, “The pain of this victim should be the pain of the whole country. Today she is someone else’s daughter, tomorrow she could be from any house.”
