EDITORIAL
Two years ago, on this day, a young Indian female Doctor, was found brutally raped and murdered, blood soaked inside the hospital where she worked. Just 31 years old, her life, her dreams, her spark – all destroyed. Her half naked body left exposed, her legs wrenched open and blood flowing from her eyes.
It is difficult yet essential to share these details to bring home the horror of what had gone down in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a pre-eminent government institute in Kolkata, West Bengal on 9 August 2024.
Her father was made to wait 3 agonising hours to see a glimpse of his daughter’s dead body, before he was shunted out again. In violation of all norms, the victim’s body was hastily cremated, turning to ash all crucial evidence: her bodily fluids, semen of the rapists, bite marks on her neck and chest and all hair samples. Obliterating all possibility of a second autopsy and detailed medical examination of the victims body.
A single arrest and conviction was made, but many doctors have repeatedly, over the years raised suspicion publicly, that the medical evidence pointed to an extremely brutal gang-rape, which suggests that perhaps the other rapists and killers are out there, still roaming free for two years. The parents of the victim have voiced their concern saying their daughter was gang-raped.
A huge political slugfest had erupted on who’s to blame at the time of the incident, with finger-pointing amongst different political parties; and videos had surfaced online showing a purported attempt to tamper with evidence and to remove evidence from the crime scene at RG Kar Medical College, with late night, ‘mysterious renovations’ being started by the College Administration, a mere 20 meters away from the location of the rape and murder before being stopped after public uproar.
Where were the police authorities?
It had taken the intervention of the Chief Justice of the Kolkata High Court to ask why the principal of RG Kar Medical College, Dr Sandip Ghosh was not removed immediately following the horrific rape and murder within the college and why was he transferred to a plum posting instead? “Why did students of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) have to protest, lock the Colleges gates to stop this Principal from resuming his new position. Why did the state administration not shunt him out permanently after 9 August?” the Court hd asked. The High Court had then put Dr Sandip Ghosh on indefinite leave and handed the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s premier domestic central investigative agency.
What was even more shocking however is Dr. Ghosh’s behaviour and actions, following the death of the young doctor. He first blamed the victim herself, saying “what was she doing in the seminar room of the college hospital? Why was she alone?”
Under him the College administration in a very disturbing manner misguided the victim’s family, initially informing them that their daughter had committed “suicide.” Only after intense public outcry and protests, across India, after the intervention of the Calcutta High Court, the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital administration have accepted that a brutal rape and murder has taken place in their premises.
Even amidst these major lapses, the college premises were vandalised on 14 August 2024 by violent mobs and hooligans. Where was the police? Who is going to protect the citizens in the wilful absence of state authorities?
The young doctor died on 9 August 2024. But the story is not new.
Year after year, week after week, we have reported on countless cases of sexual assault and violence against women in India. Too many to count and too appalling to mention. Government of India’s own data, from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2024 alone, 29,536 cases of rape and 69,191 cases of child sexual offences were registered in the country.
This is equivalent to more than 80 rapes taking place in India every single day and amounts to more than 3 rapes occurring every single hour in 2024.
We have a rape and sexual violence problem in this country, that no one wants to talk about. When will we accept this visceral evil is consuming us from within? Because only then can we begin to fight it, and remove this glaring blight on our nation.
The horrific nature of what has happened, brings back memories of Nirbhaya, India’s fearless daughter who too was brutally gang-raped, tortured and left for dead in the National Capital Delhi in 2012. Her mother, Asha Devi had courageously announced Nirbhaya’s real name to the world – Jyoti Singh, telling the nation that her daughter’s last words to her were “ma, mai jeena chahati hoon” (mom, I want to live).
12 years later, this young female doctor too had by all accounts defiantly fought her assaulters, not giving in till her last breath. Yet two years after her brutal death, nothing has changed. We honour her courage with despicable cowardice. Where is the mighty Indian state?
The details of what had happened to a young Indian girl are almost too chilling to recount, but recount them we must. For in the horror of what has happened to a young female doctor and her family, lies India’s shame.
For the past 11 years, the Government of India has been running the famous national mission called ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child. The national mission has produced good success in saving our young girls over the years. But in this case, the tragedy is – a young girl child was educated by her family and became a doctor. Yet as a nation and society we could not save her on 9 August 2024, a mere 5 days before our 78th Independence Day.
Even as young girls and women in India tried to ‘reclaim the night’ taking out huge protests in support of the victim and asking for swift justice, the trust the people of Kolkata shared with each other was broken. Just as it was broken in Delhi in 2012 when Nirbhaya happened and in 2018 in the Kathua rape (Jammu & Kashmir), in the 2020 Hathras gang-rape (Uttar Pradesh) and in the 2026 Rajasthan gang-rape case. The rape stories are countless and the instances never ending. When will this horror stop?
As India approaches its 80th Independence Day on 15 August 2026, we are forced to wonder how hard will it now become for a young girl of this country to convince her parents to permit her to go out and work. How long will we have to cage our women and girls fearing such dreadful sexual violence? How much harder does a young girl have to fight for her Right to Work now in 2026 after all these incidents?
The day when we are able to do both, educate and save the girl child, when women in India do not fear stepping out at night, is the day we gain true Independence for all our citizens.
How much longer must we wait for that day?
