Family Speaks Out on Doctor’s Murder and Failed Investigation in Kolkata

The parents of the young doctor who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College have expressed their deep disappointment with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after witnessing the police’s handling of the case. “The Central Bureau of Investigation is at least making an effort,” her father said in an exclusive interview with the news source. He also mentioned that he had handed a page from his daughter’s diary to the CBI but declined to discuss its contents.

“Initially, I had full faith in Mamata Banerjee, but now no. She is asking for justice, but what is she saying that for? She can take charge of that, she is doing nothing,” he said when asked about the state’s investigation. 

“They are saying ‘We want justice.’ But when the general public says the same thing, they try to lock them up,” he added, referring to the lathi-charge on supporters at a football match who raised “We want justice” slogans. 

For the rest of the state’s residents, the young woman’s mother offered a word of caution: “All the schemes by Mamata Banerjee – the Kanyashree scheme, the Lakshmi scheme – all pseudo. Whoever wants to avail these schemes, before availing them kindly see if your Lakshmi at home is safe.”

After a 36-hour shift, the second-year postgraduate student had gone alone to an empty seminar room that night to get some rest. The hospital has no on-call room, and it appears she had fallen asleep there.

Her partially clothed body, bearing multiple injuries, was found the next morning. 

The prime suspect, Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer with Kolkata Police stationed at the police outpost at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, had access to all departments. He was arrested based on CCTV footage showing him entering the building where the doctor was found murdered. A Bluetooth headset found next to the victim’s body was seen on his neck in the CCTV footage and was paired with his phone as well. 

Local media reported that Roy admitted to the crime soon after police began questioning him. “Hang me if you want,” he had told the police nonchalantly, according to the reports.

When asked about the possibility that more than one person was involved in the attack, her father responded, “We have been saying that from the beginning. All the people we spoke to, even MBBS doctors, agreed that one person couldn’t do so much damage.”

The most heartbreaking aspect of the entire ordeal, he said, was that the individuals responsible for his daughter’s safety failed in their duty.

“As parents, we worry when our child is on the road, not so much when she reaches her workplace. Like we used to drop her to school. Once she is inside the gates, we are relieved,” he said. “Now she was grown up. The roads were a problem, so we got her a car also,” he added.