12 arrested for late-night violence at RG Kar; protesters claim police abandoned them when miscreants showed up

Police have registered three cases suo-motu at different police stations in connection with the night’s violence. Ten of the 12 arrested were produced in court, which granted police their custody for a week. According to officers, five others have been detained and searches are underway to identify more suspects.

The three cases were registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) that deal with attempt to murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, obstruction of public servant on duty, criminal use of force on public servant, and mischief, among others. Sections of the Arms Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, and the West Bengal Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage of Property) Act were also included.

On Thursday morning, the emergency building at RG Kar told the story of what had transpired the previous night. Shattered glass, damaged medical equipment, broken beds, and destroyed medicines lay scattered across rooms on the ground floor, while doctors and nurses could be seen trying to erect their protest tents again.

Many doctors said that when the miscreants showed up, police left the protesters to fend for themselves.

They said the miscreants chased away and assaulted the protesters, barged into the Emergency building, and ransacked the rooms on the ground floor using sticks and hammers.

“We were attacked around midnight. The police ran faster than us. The goons beat some of us and ransacked the area. It was clearly meant to intimidate us,” a protesting doctor, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Eyewitnesses said the police were outnumbered and officers ran to safety, leaving protesters behind.

“We had to hide to escape the mob. The police personnel were running away alongside the protesters, and looking for a place to hide,” alleged Dr Hasan Mushtaq, a chest medicine PGT who was at the protest.

A woman doctor said they locked themselves in a room and waited for the commotion to end.

Another woman protester said the crowd intentionally destroyed the protest stage before going on a rampage inside the hospital.

It was in a seminar room on the fourth floor of the emergency building that the 31-year-old doctor’s body was found last week. The CBI on Thursday summoned five doctors as part of its investigation of the case. A CBI team also met the victim’s family and recorded their statements.

According to police, the miscreants who barged into the emergency building did not reach the fourth floor area, and the sanctity of the crime scene is intact.

At the ground floor, the cardiology emergency section, the admissions room, the medical officers’ room, the tele-neuro medicine room, the nurses’ room, and the emergency wards lay ransacked. Sophisticated equipment, including life support systems, were damaged.

The miscreants also entered the storeroom and broke open safes containing medicines. The ENT department was vandalised, too.

Desktop computers, laptops, lights and fans were broken across rooms. Bathrooms were destroyed, and the chairs and beds meant for patients and their attendants were not spared either.

A doctor who was at the protest site when the vandals barged in said, “We have been holding a peaceful agitation for the last six days. We called the police for help, but in vain. We were targeted.”

A nurse who was also part of the protest said, “We were helpless last night. How will we work like this? Our safety and security must be ensured by the administration and police.”

Thursday saw massive police deployment at the hospital. During the day, West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose reached the spot and met protesters. “We will take exemplary action. I will take suggestions from you, too. We will work together,” Bose told them.