The Supreme Court bail granted to former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh in a corruption case has triggered renewed demands for accountability from the parents of the rape-murder victim and citizen groups in Kolkata.
Two organisations, Voice of Abhaya and Voice of Women, have announced a march from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to the Central Bureau of Investigation office on November 12. The groups are urging citizens, particularly women, to join the demonstration and are calling on the CBI to act on the evidence in the case.
An organiser said the groups would continue their protest despite what they described as attempts to destroy, withhold or suppress evidence. “We appeal to citizens from all sections of society, especially women, to come out on the streets on November 12 and show that they do not have to depend on any government to get their demands fulfilled,” the organiser said. “There is no room for despair.”
The deceased postgraduate doctor’s mother, Ratna Debnath, questioned why people who were present with her daughter in the hours before her death had not been arrested. She said investigators should examine the last-seen circumstances and identify who was with the doctor between midnight and 6 am, the period in which doctors have said she died.
“If everyone had been arrested at the time instead of allowing evidence to be destroyed, the situation might have been different,” Debnath said. She also alleged that individuals who directed the destruction of evidence must be identified and brought to justice. Her allegations referred to the then health minister, health secretary NS Nigam and Sandip Ghosh.
The victim’s father said Ghosh should have received a life sentence in the case, while expressing faith that justice would eventually be delivered. On the health secretary’s continued tenure, he said the official would not remain in the post if evidence was found, referring to the chief minister’s stated position that removal could follow such evidence.
BJP leader Rahul Sinha said the bail order had surprised his party but acknowledged that the decision rested with the judiciary. “Obtaining bail is also an individual’s legal right,” he told reporters, while adding that people in Bengal were unhappy with the order.
The Supreme Court granted Ghosh bail on October 17 in the case concerning alleged financial irregularities at the Kolkata medical college and manipulation of merit scores to accommodate undeserving candidates. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale allowed his plea against the Calcutta High Court’s February 23 decision rejecting bail.
The Supreme Court took note of Ghosh’s period of incarceration and the progress of the trial. He had been in custody for more than two years, while only seven of the 147 witnesses had been examined, according to the report. The planned November 12 march will now place the CBI’s handling of the case and demands for institutional accountability at the centre of renewed public mobilisation.
