KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday observed that mob violence at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was an “absolute failure of state machinery” in and highlights the “sorry state of affairs” in West Bengal.
The court directed the police and the hospital authority to file affidavits on the incident.
A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said it was hard to believe that the police intelligence did not have information about the gathering of 7,000 people at the health facility when the state's lawyer told the court that a mob of such of such number had assembled at the hospital in the early hours of Thursday.
The court directed the police and the administrator of the hospital to file two separate affidavits narrating the true state of affairs and all connected matters on the next hearing date on August 21.
The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, said the police should place on record the entire sequence of events that led to the vandalism in the hospital.
The investigating team of CBI was also directed by the court to file an interim report about the progress of its investigation into the alleged rape and murder of the woman doctor in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9, which led to a ceasework by junior doctors in government hospitals in state.
The bench said, "You pass section 144 of the CrPC orders for any reason. When so much commotion is going on, you should have cordoned the area.7,000 people can’t come walking,” he said.
The bench also questioned the state government about the urgency and timing of renovation work near the crime scene at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. It ordered the state to file an affidavit with photographs to demonstrate that the crime scene remains intact.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused opposition parties of orchestrating the vandalism at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
"The police are investigating the incident. I have no issues with students or protesting doctors, but certain political parties are trying to create unrest. The videos will reveal what happened," she said.
Mamata Banerjee also criticised political elements, particularly the Left and the BJP, alleging they incited trouble. She claimed that around midnight, approximately 40 individuals posing as protesters entered the hospital, vandalizing the emergency department, nursing station, and medicine store, and damaging CCTV cameras.
She said on Thursday evening that two floors of its emergency ward have been destroyed, medicines looted and infrastructure and equipment severely damaged. They also ransacked a stage where junior doctors had been protesting since August 9 over the alleged rape and murder of a woman postgraduate trainee and demanding workplace security.
Opposition parties in the state have accused the police of not taking adequate action when the vandalism and violence took place at the hospital.
The probe into the death of the trainee doctor was transferred from the Kolkata Police to the CBI on orders of the Calcutta High Court. The Kolkata Police said on Friday that it has so far arrested 19 people in connection with the vandalism and violence. A civic volunteer has been arrested in connection with the crime.
