ECHOES OF DEHLI BUS RAPE
Indian media have reported the murdered doctor was found in the teaching hospital’s seminar hall, suggesting she had gone there for a brief rest during a long shift.
An autopsy has confirmed sexual assault, and in a petition to the court, the victim’s parents have said that they suspected their daughter was gang-raped, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV.
Though police have detained a man who worked at the hospital helping people navigate busy queues, officers have been accused of mishandling the case.
Kolkata’s High Court on Tuesday transferred the case to the elite Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to “inspire public confidence”.
In the early hours of Thursday, a mob of some 40 people angry at authorities’ handling of the case stormed the grounds of the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, the site of the murder.
The men smashed property and hurled stones at police, who fired tear gas in response, authorities said.
West Bengal lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee, from the Trinamool Congress party, condemned the “hooliganism and vandalism”, but said “the demands of the protesting doctors are fair and justified”.
Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India – an average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people.
For many, the gruesome nature of the attack has invoked comparisons with the horrific 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.
The woman became a symbol of the socially conservative country’s failure to tackle sexual violence against women.
Her death sparked huge, and at times violent, demonstrations in Delhi and elsewhere.
Under pressure, the government introduced harsher penalties for rapists, and the death penalty for repeat offenders.
Several new sexual offences were also introduced, including stalking and jail sentences for officials who failed to register rape complaints.
Source: CNA
