Murdered at Kolkata hospital: Fighter, doc with conscience, dutiful daughter, role model
India News: The 31-year-old trainee doctor was preparing for their biggest household Durga Puja yet and for life as a full-fledged specialist in respiratory medic
She had a singular purpose – make her parents, whose selflessness and sacrifices had given her foundation, proud. And one dream – to become a doctor, not any doctor but a batch-topping gold-medallist. Like millions of middle-class Indian girls, she was born in a family that had an abundance of love, but limited means. Nothing came easy and each step up – from a primary school in the populous Kolkata suburb of Sodepur to a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital – was welcomed with gratitude and a prayer.
Determined to see his daughter shine, her father toiled away at his small tailoring shop, saving carefully as she hustled through school and college to ensure her dream didn’t derail. She reciprocated by being a non-fussy daughter, taking autos, rickshaws and crowded local trains to school, college or outings with friends, making no demands other than for her parents to make no exceptions for her, and studying hard so her education rode on merit and not her dad’s savings. They lived for each other. The daughter their pride, and the parents her priority. Her PG degree was to be their path to a life both of affection and means. It would settle the family’s debts and make sure every decision didn’t need careful budgeting. Parents, friends, teachers – the one word they have for her is “fighter”. She was the indomitable one.
A night killed it all.
“We are a poor family and we raised her with a lot of hardship. She worked extremely hard to become a doctor. All our dreams have been shattered in one night,” her 67-year-old father told TOI on August 17. From a batch of MBBS students who had seen Covid pandemic break out as they learnt their craft, she had chosen respiratory medicine as her specialisation. At RG Kar, the campus she called her “second home”, she immersed herself in patient management. Long work hours and a demanding academic schedule left her with little time even to sleep.
Before crime, a 36-hr shift.
On Aug 9, after a shift and study cycle that had stretched on 36 hours without a break, she had dosed off in the medical college’s seminar room when she was savaged by one or more individuals (still the subject of a probe), sexually assaulted and murdered in an attack of depraved brutality that broke her neck and pelvis. Interns and fellow postgraduate trainees who had come to the seminar room next morning found her body. Her laptop, a notebook and cellphone lay intact beside it.
One person, a civic volunteer who is mainly a tout at the hospital, Sanjay Roy, has been arrested but neither her colleagues nor parents believe he is the only person involved in the crime. The parents moved the Calcutta High Court, following which CBI has taken over the case and has so far questioned some of classmates and colleagues, senior teachers, the (now removed) principal Sandip Ghosh and superintendent of the hospital.
Evidence gathered from the scene so far suggests she had fought back – there were scratches on the hands of the accused, which matched skin and blood samples collected from her nails.
Question: one suspect or more?
The family is convinced there is a deeper conspiracy at play and multiple individuals planned the attack on her. Why? There are multiple theories. Roy, for instance, is part of a racket of touts that sold RG Kar beds to patients in private health care facilities who couldn’t afford stiff charges and wanted to move to govt care. Within RG Kar, he also helped patients who gave him money jump the queue for pathology tests. Were there doctors and interns too involved in this racket with Roy? And did that have anything to do with the attack on the 31-year-old second-year trainee doctor? These are the questions that have been put before CBI.
The savagery of the assault and relatability with her life has since triggered uproar, not just in Kolkata and within the medical community but society at large, bringing women out in large numbers to protest against recurring sexual violence and harassment, scenes reminiscent of 2012 after the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi, which had similarly shaken the conscience of the country. “Now that she has been snatched away from us, we want her tormentors to be arrested and punished the same way she was tortured,” her Kolkata-based cousin told TOI.
She aced engg & medical.
To her generation in the family, she was cited as a role model, both for her good academic scores and her restrained manner. “She aced JEE, cracking both engineering and medical,” a relative said. “She chose MBBS and qualified for the course at two state-run medical colleges. Eventually, she chose JNM Medical College Hospital in Kalyani. Again, when she decided to pursue PG, she qualified at two medical colleges and picked RG Kar (which is about an hour’s bus ride from her Sodepur home).”
Studious while in school, she scored 90% in Madhyamik (Class X state boards) and 89% in higher secondary. Her mother (62) said since their only child was born, their life had revolved just around her. “She was our soul, she meant everything to us,” she said. Like all Bengali families, they too were eagerly counting down to Durga Puja in Oct, which had acquired meaning even more special because the daughter had started organising a Puja at home since 2021.
This Puja was to be special.
“This was to be the third year of our home Puja and she had plans to organise a bigger one this time. This was meant to be a special occasion as she would have completed her PG,” her mother said. Speaking with constraint even as anger rages about her daughter’s killing, she added, “Now, all we want is justice for her death and arrest and proper punishment for all the culprits involved. Only that can offer solace to her soul.”
Sanjib Mukherjee, a next-door neighbour, said the neighbourhood had cheered the trainee doctor’s academic landmarks and her father, too, had tasted success in his business, which made them look forward to better times ahead. “Her father rose from a tailor to a garment maker. The daughter was a dedicated medical student. Everyone respected them,” he said, adding they had recently bought a new car and restored their old house.
Other neighbours spoke about her love for animals – she cared for strays and fed and rescued them. ‘She was also very fond of gardening. As neighbours, whenever she came home on leave, some of us would consult her on medical issues and she readily helped,” said Kakoli Ghosh, a neighbour.
She was meant to be a doc.
Arnab Biswas, one of her teachers at Kalyani JNM, said MBBS wasn’t just a career choice she made, but a calling she had discovered. “She was not only academically good but also very committed to the field. After completing her studies, she could have become one of the best doctors in the country. The girl used to get very upset when someone got sick, as a doctor should be,” Biswas said.
She had another trait that is any doctor’s envy and a patient’s relief. Great handwriting. “See, names of medicines are written so clearly that any patient can easily understand it. It is so sad and shocking for us that she isn’t here anymore,” said a fellow trainee at RG Kar, showing us a prescription written in Bengali by her murdered colleague. The campus has convulsed in protests since and was targeted by vandals on Aug 15 midnight as the political row over her death escalates.
‘Could’ve been any of us’
Jadavpur University researcher Rimjhim Sinha, who gave the first ‘Reclaim the Night’ call that took the shape of a movement across India on Aug 15 midnight as women – and men – held candle marches in protest, said society was shaken because “it could have been any one of us on that night”.
“There is always an inequality of fear among women. I thought that when we celebrate Independence of the country, I would also like to celebrate my independence as a woman and reclaim what is ours – the city, the night, the public spaces that patriarchal forces consistently throw us out of. Apart from speedy justice for the trainee doctor, our demands — like a secure all-night transport system for working women and marginalised gender communities, assignment of safe and secure resting rooms for all professionals working at night and inclusion of gender equality in school curriculum — can pave the path for a change in the patriarchal mindset,” Sinha said.
Bigger questions for workplaces.
“Is it not a bare minimum thing that any country, or its government must ensure safety and security for all at the workplace?” asked Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research in Delhi. “There are so many reactions now because it happened inside a government hospital, inside her workplace. And the place that is meant to serve people is actually defending those who brutalised, raped and murdered her. Where will women feel safe? The insecurity is personal to everyone, and everyone can relate to the incident.”
Jhuma Sen, advocate at Calcutta HC, said the question of safety resonates beyond the RG Kar incident and for every workplace in the country. “How did the civic volunteer reach the seminar room, or why was there no CCTV camera installed? The employer must be made accountable. It is the responsibility of the employer to provide a safe environment for all workers,” she said.
Determined to see his daughter shine, her father toiled away at his small tailoring shop, saving carefully as she hustled through school and college to ensure her dream didn’t derail. She reciprocated by being a non-fussy daughter, taking autos, rickshaws and crowded local trains to school, college or outings with friends, making no demands other than for her parents to make no exceptions for her, and studying hard so her education rode on merit and not her dad’s savings. They lived for each other. The daughter their pride, and the parents her priority. Her PG degree was to be their path to a life both of affection and means. It would settle the family’s debts and make sure every decision didn’t need careful budgeting. Parents, friends, teachers – the one word they have for her is “fighter”. She was the indomitable one.
A night killed it all.
“We are a poor family and we raised her with a lot of hardship. She worked extremely hard to become a doctor. All our dreams have been shattered in one night,” her 67-year-old father told TOI on August 17. From a batch of MBBS students who had seen Covid pandemic break out as they learnt their craft, she had chosen respiratory medicine as her specialisation. At RG Kar, the campus she called her “second home”, she immersed herself in patient management. Long work hours and a demanding academic schedule left her with little time even to sleep.
Before crime, a 36-hr shift.
On Aug 9, after a shift and study cycle that had stretched on 36 hours without a break, she had dosed off in the medical college’s seminar room when she was savaged by one or more individuals (still the subject of a probe), sexually assaulted and murdered in an attack of depraved brutality that broke her neck and pelvis. Interns and fellow postgraduate trainees who had come to the seminar room next morning found her body. Her laptop, a notebook and cellphone lay intact beside it.
One person, a civic volunteer who is mainly a tout at the hospital, Sanjay Roy, has been arrested but neither her colleagues nor parents believe he is the only person involved in the crime. The parents moved the Calcutta High Court, following which CBI has taken over the case and has so far questioned some of classmates and colleagues, senior teachers, the (now removed) principal Sandip Ghosh and superintendent of the hospital.
Evidence gathered from the scene so far suggests she had fought back – there were scratches on the hands of the accused, which matched skin and blood samples collected from her nails.
Question: one suspect or more?
The family is convinced there is a deeper conspiracy at play and multiple individuals planned the attack on her. Why? There are multiple theories. Roy, for instance, is part of a racket of touts that sold RG Kar beds to patients in private health care facilities who couldn’t afford stiff charges and wanted to move to govt care. Within RG Kar, he also helped patients who gave him money jump the queue for pathology tests. Were there doctors and interns too involved in this racket with Roy? And did that have anything to do with the attack on the 31-year-old second-year trainee doctor? These are the questions that have been put before CBI.
The savagery of the assault and relatability with her life has since triggered uproar, not just in Kolkata and within the medical community but society at large, bringing women out in large numbers to protest against recurring sexual violence and harassment, scenes reminiscent of 2012 after the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi, which had similarly shaken the conscience of the country. “Now that she has been snatched away from us, we want her tormentors to be arrested and punished the same way she was tortured,” her Kolkata-based cousin told TOI.
She aced engg & medical.
To her generation in the family, she was cited as a role model, both for her good academic scores and her restrained manner. “She aced JEE, cracking both engineering and medical,” a relative said. “She chose MBBS and qualified for the course at two state-run medical colleges. Eventually, she chose JNM Medical College Hospital in Kalyani. Again, when she decided to pursue PG, she qualified at two medical colleges and picked RG Kar (which is about an hour’s bus ride from her Sodepur home).”
Studious while in school, she scored 90% in Madhyamik (Class X state boards) and 89% in higher secondary. Her mother (62) said since their only child was born, their life had revolved just around her. “She was our soul, she meant everything to us,” she said. Like all Bengali families, they too were eagerly counting down to Durga Puja in Oct, which had acquired meaning even more special because the daughter had started organising a Puja at home since 2021.
This Puja was to be special.
“This was to be the third year of our home Puja and she had plans to organise a bigger one this time. This was meant to be a special occasion as she would have completed her PG,” her mother said. Speaking with constraint even as anger rages about her daughter’s killing, she added, “Now, all we want is justice for her death and arrest and proper punishment for all the culprits involved. Only that can offer solace to her soul.”
Sanjib Mukherjee, a next-door neighbour, said the neighbourhood had cheered the trainee doctor’s academic landmarks and her father, too, had tasted success in his business, which made them look forward to better times ahead. “Her father rose from a tailor to a garment maker. The daughter was a dedicated medical student. Everyone respected them,” he said, adding they had recently bought a new car and restored their old house.
Other neighbours spoke about her love for animals – she cared for strays and fed and rescued them. ‘She was also very fond of gardening. As neighbours, whenever she came home on leave, some of us would consult her on medical issues and she readily helped,” said Kakoli Ghosh, a neighbour.
She was meant to be a doc.
Arnab Biswas, one of her teachers at Kalyani JNM, said MBBS wasn’t just a career choice she made, but a calling she had discovered. “She was not only academically good but also very committed to the field. After completing her studies, she could have become one of the best doctors in the country. The girl used to get very upset when someone got sick, as a doctor should be,” Biswas said.
She had another trait that is any doctor’s envy and a patient’s relief. Great handwriting. “See, names of medicines are written so clearly that any patient can easily understand it. It is so sad and shocking for us that she isn’t here anymore,” said a fellow trainee at RG Kar, showing us a prescription written in Bengali by her murdered colleague. The campus has convulsed in protests since and was targeted by vandals on Aug 15 midnight as the political row over her death escalates.
‘Could’ve been any of us’
Jadavpur University researcher Rimjhim Sinha, who gave the first ‘Reclaim the Night’ call that took the shape of a movement across India on Aug 15 midnight as women – and men – held candle marches in protest, said society was shaken because “it could have been any one of us on that night”.
“There is always an inequality of fear among women. I thought that when we celebrate Independence of the country, I would also like to celebrate my independence as a woman and reclaim what is ours – the city, the night, the public spaces that patriarchal forces consistently throw us out of. Apart from speedy justice for the trainee doctor, our demands — like a secure all-night transport system for working women and marginalised gender communities, assignment of safe and secure resting rooms for all professionals working at night and inclusion of gender equality in school curriculum — can pave the path for a change in the patriarchal mindset,” Sinha said.
Bigger questions for workplaces.
“Is it not a bare minimum thing that any country, or its government must ensure safety and security for all at the workplace?” asked Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research in Delhi. “There are so many reactions now because it happened inside a government hospital, inside her workplace. And the place that is meant to serve people is actually defending those who brutalised, raped and murdered her. Where will women feel safe? The insecurity is personal to everyone, and everyone can relate to the incident.”
Jhuma Sen, advocate at Calcutta HC, said the question of safety resonates beyond the RG Kar incident and for every workplace in the country. “How did the civic volunteer reach the seminar room, or why was there no CCTV camera installed? The employer must be made accountable. It is the responsibility of the employer to provide a safe environment for all workers,” she said.