KOLKATA: The brutalised body of a second-year post graduate trainee (PGT) doctor of respiratory medicine at RG Kar Medical College was found inside a seminar hall on the third floor of the hospital’s emergency building around 7.30am on Friday, putting the campus on the boil and prompting the administration to rush the city police chief and health secretary to the spot.
A senior police officer said in the evening that a judicial inquest had found injuries all over the body, including the private parts, blood stains on the face and a broken collar bone, indicating she was strangled. Police have formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the murder and are awaiting a formal report by the three-member autopsy team to add sexual assault charges to the FIR. Forensic experts said they had found blood stains and human hair all over the mattress on which she was lying and a broken spectacle next to the body.
CM Mamata Banerjee called up the doctor’s father — who alleged his daughter was raped and murdered — and assured him of all help to ensure justice. “She has assured us of all help. But we have lost our daughter. Unless we get justice we can never be satisfied. I suspect my daughter was raped and murdered but the authorities initially tried to cover up facts,” the father said. “They killed my daughter. Her body was in a semi-naked state. Her glasses were broken and there were injury marks on her face. She was our only child,” the woman’s mother said, adding that she was told there was no CCTV camera inside the seminar hall where the body was found.
Protests erupted in the hospital soon after the discovery of the body with fellow PGTs, interns and house staff going on a flash strike. They refused to let police take the body for postmortem till the conditions they had set for the autopsy and inquiry were met. Various medico organisations and political parties also stormed the hospital and joined the protests later in the day.
The hospital authorities set up an 11-member internal committee to probe the incident. The postmortem, which was conducted in the evening, was overseen by a three-member committee and videographed. Sanjay Bashist, the MSVP of the hospital, said there would be a judicial enquiry into the case. “There will be a neutral investigation. We also want the truth to come out,” he added.
‘PGT doc’s clothes were dishevelled’
Sources in the hospital said, the PGT doctor was in charge of patients in the chest medicine ward at night and was in the ward till 2 am, before going up to the seminar room to take a break and study.
“Around 7.30 am an intern called her up but her cellphone kept ringing. He then went to the seminar room and found her body. He alerted other students, who called up hospital officials and alerted cops,” said one of her colleagues.
Those who saw the body said she was lying on a podium in the seminar hall. “A blue bed sheet covered the body from the neck to the knees. Her kurta was dishevelled and the trousers missing. Her laptop, a note book, cellphone and a water bottle were next to the body,” a source said.
Police commissioner Vineet Goyal and other senior officials and health secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam reached the hospital shortly after the discovery of the body and spent over four hours speaking to her colleagues, other students, staff and hospital officials.
“It’s an unfortunate incident and we have started a probe,” Goyal said.
Asenior investigating official said they had recorded the statements of those who were on duty with her at night and the intern who saw the body first. “We are checking who was on duty at the hospital on Thursday night and who had access to the seminar room. We are also checking her call records,” the officer said.