RG Kar rape and murder: Junior doctors continue protest amid rain

Amid persistent rain, agitating junior doctors in India’s West Bengal today continued their protest vowing to pursue justice for their colleague who was raped and murdered at the RG Kar hospital.
They continued their protest a day after another attempt to hold talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee failed.
They have been staging the sit-in protest in front of the state health ministry headquarters in Kolkata, our New Delhi correspondent reports.
“We are steadfast in our resolve to seek justice for our sister, no matter the adversity. We have spent nights on the streets in harsh conditions and inclement weather despite some of us not feeling well,” an agitating junior doctor said as their sit-in entered the sixth day.
Yesterday, Mamata paid a surprise visit to the site where the doctors were protesting and assured them that their demands would be addressed but the proposed meeting fell through, with the protesters claiming that they were asked to leave “unceremoniously” after waiting for three hours at the gates of the CM’s residence.
Another protesting doctor claimed they had agreed to attend the meeting without live-streaming or video recording as Mamata insisted on, but after notifying Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya of this decision, they were told to leave because it was too late.
“We must stay strong. This fight isn’t just ours; it is for the 10 crore people of Bengal. The arrests of Sandip Ghosh and the officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station validate our view that attempts were made to cover up this heinous crime,” he said.
The CBI, which is probing the rape-murder case, arrested Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College, on Saturday evening and added charges of tampering with evidence against him.
Ghosh was arrested along with Abhijit Mondal, the OC of Tala Police Station, under whose jurisdiction RG Kar hospital, on charges of misleading the investigation and altering the crime scene.
The junior doctors, who have been on work abstention since August 9, are also demanding the suspension of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, Health Secretary NS Nigam, director of health services and director of medical education for “failing” in their duties in the context of the RG Kar incident.
Besides, they have sought adequate safety and security measures for all women health professionals in the state.