The protesting doctors also demanded a central protection act for healthcare workers, along with a proper investigation into the Kolkata rape-murder
West Bengal government has formed an SIT to investigate financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College amid ongoing protests over trainee doctor's alleged rape and murder
Veteran actor Neena Gupta has said there is a need to come up with solutions to ensure women's safety, as she condemned the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last week. Over the last few days, the actor said, she has mulled a lot on the issue of women's safety. "Condemning it (the crime) is okay, but we need a solution. What could the solution be? Ours is a large country. Every state, district, region or village will have committees where they (women) work, do surveillance and file a report. "For example, a teacher in a village perhaps has to walk many kilometres in the evening or at night before she gets back (home)... So, those ladies who go for surveillance, they are also at risk. I thought a lot but couldn't find any solution. It will take a long time for society to change," Gupta told PTI. Referring to the government's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' scheme, which addresses concerns about gender
The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata's R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud is scheduled to hear on Tuesday a matter titled 'In Re: Alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and related issue'. The Calcutta High Court recently transferred the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI. The alleged rape and murder of the junior doctor at a seminar hall of the state-run hospital has sparked widespread protests.
The former principal of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, Dr Sandip Ghosh, was on Saturday questioned for several hours by the CBI for the second consecutive day, as part of its probe into the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at the state-run medical establishment, officials said. After Friday's grilling, which continued till early Saturday, Ghosh was again summoned at the CBI office for another round of questioning, they said. He was seen re-entering the CBI office at the CGO complex in Salt Lake with a bunch of papers and files a little before 10.30 am on Saturday, and hadn't left the premises till reports last received. In the latest round of questioning, he was quizzed about his whereabouts on the night of the death of the postgraduate trainee, who called him to inform about the incident, and his primary reaction to it, the officials said. The CBI sleuths also corroborated his version with that of doctors, interns, and nurses who were on duty at the hospital on that ...
"I don't want to be the next victim", read placards carried by several women medics who were part of a march here on Saturday to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata last week. Hundreds of medics, including doctors and resident doctors, wearing stethoscopes over their white aprons, started their march from the Lady Hardinge Medical College on the sixth day of their agitation over the incident and to press for their demands such as a central law to check violence against healthcare personnel. On reaching Connaught Place, they held an around 25-minute sit-in, before police removed barricades and allowed them to proceed to the Jantar Mantar for the next phase of their demonstration -- a candle light march. Non-emergency services, such as OPD and diagnostics, and elective surgeries at city-based health facilities, including at Centre-run AIIMS, Safdarjung hospital and RML hospital, are hit since Monday. Inconvenience of ...
A group of Indian doctors and medical students in the UK have issued an open letter this weekend demanding justice for the postgraduate trainee doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The letter condemns the "brutal rape and murder of an on-duty female doctor at the hospital and the inaction of the West Bengal government in its response to the incident last week. The letter follows a peaceful protest staged outside India House in London and similar gatherings in UK cities such as Edinburgh and Leeds in solidarity with the doctors protesting in India. This incident is a symptom of the rising violence against women and the negligence of the state towards its citizens, reads the open letter. The absence of investment in public infrastructure and safety measures has a disproportionate impact on women, who are already marginalised by the patriarchal social conditions. Instead of supporting their empowerment by creating safe workplac
Kolkata Police on Friday said it has so far arrested 19 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the metropolis.
Kolkata rape-murder: Major protests planned today by political parties TMC, BJP, and CPM, as well as the Indian Medical Association (IMA)
The public outrage over the rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor in Kolkata is understandable but the CBI taking over the case shouldn't lead to it "being quietly buried", Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said on Friday. "It is hard to conceive of a more bestial, heinous crime than the murder and rape of a young woman that took place in Kolkata. The public outrage is entirely understandable. Thoughts and prayers with her family," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a post on X. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a rally over the incident at 4 pm on Friday, demanding that the CBI should give daily updates on the investigation, and that the probe should be completed before August 17. Explaining the reason, Banerjee was holding the rally, O'Brien posted, CBI, which is now handling the case, must give daily updates on the investigation... The deadline given by the CM to Kolkata Police to complete the investigation was August 17. The same must apply to ...
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused opposition political parties of being behind the vandalism at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital here. Banerjee said she does not hold the students or doctors responsible for their protests and instead, she accused certain political parties of attempting to incite trouble. "Police are looking into the matter. I don't have any complaints against the students or the agitating doctors. But there are certain political parties which are trying to foment trouble. If you go through the video, you will get to see what happened," she said. Around midnight, a group of around 40 people, posing as protesters, entered the hospital, vandalising the emergency department, nursing station, and medicine store, while also damaging CCTV cameras and ransacking a stage where junior doctors had been demonstrating since August 9.
Thousands of women from all walks of life hit the streets across West Bengal at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, protesting the horrific rape-murder of a doctor on duty at a Kolkata hospital last week. Spurred by the 'Reclaim the Night' campaign, which gained momentum through social media, the protests began at 11:55 pm, aligning with Independence Day celebrations, and spread across key areas in both small towns and big cities, including several landmarks in Kolkata. As night descended, the streets buzzed with chants of "We Want Justice," echoing the collective anger and sorrow of women from every corner - students, professionals, and homemakers - marching together to demand accountability and an end to violence against women. Political party flags were banned, but flags from marginalised communities, such as LGBTQ+ groups, were proudly displayed. Rimjhim Sinha, the movement's initiator, described the event as a new freedom struggle for women, symbolised by a viral poster of a
The arrested doctor has been identified as Dilbag Singh Thakur
Resident doctors at major hospitals here, including the AIIMS and Safdarjung, remained on strike on Wednesday over the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata, disrupting elective services for the third consecutive day. Frustrated by the lack of consultation with the Resident Doctors' Associations (RDAs) of several hospitals, members expressed their disappointment and accused the Federation of Resident Doctors' Associations (FORDA), which called off its strike, of backstabbing the fraternity. Following a meeting with Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Tuesday night, FORDA decided to end the strike. Doctors at the GTB Hospital, who were part of the delegation, initially called off their indefinite strike on Wednesday morning but later resumed it in support of the RDAs. The RDAs of major hospitals including AIIMS, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia, Indira Gandhi Hospital, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Maulana Azad Medical College continued the strike f
Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been granted a 21-day furlough, official sources said on Tuesday. During his temporary release period, Singh will go to the Dera ashram in Barnawa in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat, they further said. The Sirsa-headquartered Dera sect chief was granted the temporary release days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court disposed of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) petition against Singh's temporary release. The high court on August 9 observed that a plea for temporary release by the Dera chief should be considered by the competent authority without any "arbitrariness or favouritism". In June, Singh moved the high court and sought directions to grant him a 21-day furlough. On February 29, the high court directed the Haryana government not to grant further parole to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief without its permission. He had been granted a 50-day parole on January 19. Singh is serving a 20-year sentence f
Ten government hospitals in Delhi have begun an indefinite strike, halting all elective services on Monday, in response to the recent rape and murder of a resident doctor in Kolkata. The Maulana Azad Medical College, RML Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, GTB, IHBAS, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Medical College, and National Institute of TB and Respiratory Diseases Hospital are participating in the strike, which began at 9 am, according to a statement by the Resident Doctors' Associations (RDA). According to the RDA, during the indefinite strike, all outpatient departments (OPDs), operation theatres (OTs), and ward duties will be shut, but emergency services will continue to operate as usual, ensuring that urgent patient care remains unaffected. The move comes in response to a call from the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) after a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical ..
A Florida judge released on Monday afternoon the transcripts of a 2006 grand jury investigation that looked into sex trafficking and rape allegations made against the late millionaire and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The judge's release of the approximately 150 pages came as a surprise as he had scheduled a hearing for next week on when and how to release them. Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed a bill in February allowing the release on Monday or any time thereafter that Circuit Judge Luis Delgado ordered. The details in the record will be outrageous to decent people, Delgado wrote in his order. The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal. After the grand jury investigation, Epstein cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren't part of the case. The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America's reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. The court ordered a new trial. His accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas on the witness stand. Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in ...
The Supreme Court on Monday permitted a 14-year-old alleged rape survivor to undergo medical termination of her almost 30-week pregnancy. Exercising its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution which empowers it to pass any order necessary for doing complete justice in any case, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the dean of the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital (LTMGH) at Sion in Mumbai to set up a team of doctors immediately for terminating the pregnancy. It also set aside the Bombay High Court order declining the plea, filed by the father of the minor, seeking medical termination of her pregnancy. The top court had on April 19 ordered medical examination of the minor. It had sought a report from Mumbai's Sion hospital about the girl's possible physical and psychological condition if she undergoes medical termination of pregnancy or if she is advised against it. Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, the upper
Women in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali village have alleged systemic sexual exploitation by Trinamool Congress (TMC) members