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Journalism of Courage
The father of the 31-year-old junior doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital claimed Wednesday night that he and his family were coerced into cremating her body in a hurry against their wishes.
He said they had desired to retain their daughter’s body for further rites but felt compelled to “succumb to immense pressure”, alleging that their house was surrounded by approximately 300-400 police officers after they returned from Tala police station.
“We couldn’t say anything then,” he said, during Wednesday night’s protest at RG Kar.
The father also accused the deputy commissioner (North) of Kolkata Police of offering them money while they were still grieving, shortly after returning home from the hospital.
“We told her what we needed to. The DCP (Central) Indira Mukherjee is now holding press conferences and spreading misinformation. Why is she doing this?” he said.
Meanwhile, Mukherjee told The Indian Express that she “has had no direct interaction with the victim’s family till date at all.”
The father further alleged that the cremation fees were “waived” and he is “still unaware” who did so: “My daughter must be thinking that her father couldn’t even afford her cremation expenses. It is very painful for me.”
A relative of the junior doctor alleged that the parents “were asked to sign on plain paper, with police saying that they were under shock and that there were some formalities, so accordingly they would write out the needful”.
“But we refused,” she said.
After the allegations of the victim’s family went viral, the Trinamool Congress came out with a separate video, where her parents were seen saying, “We did not say such things. We only want justice. Those who are coming to us are only saying that they should help us so that we get justice.”
After showing the clip, TMC leader and state industry minister Shashi Panja said, “We also want justice for them. We demand that no political party should pressure them to give certain statements. We have seen such ‘vulture politics’ earlier also and we know that the BJP is behind this. This is injustice to the victim.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the clip shown at the TMC press conference, the victim’s parents said they were “forced to speak” in the video, which is old.
Speaking to media persons on Tuesday, parents of the victim said, “The video which is being shown was done by persons who came to our house in civil dress and we suspect that they were cops. We were told that if we anger the police there will be problems in getting proper justice. They shot the video and we were told what to say,” said the father of the victim speaking to media persons.
Kolkata Police are yet to comment on these allegations by the victim’s family. Calls to the police went unanswered.
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