As the Evening Channels sombrely resonate with campus refrains from the most promising of Young-India voices crying.. “Saraa Desh Mein Ek hi Swar..Justice for RG Kar!”, I decided I’ll take a look at the Hospital Rape and Murder Case at Kolkata last month, viewed purely from the eyes of a well-wishing, reasonably educated elder.
While some intellectuals may still mumble, yes it’s sad indeed..but, well this “Larger Social Disorder” does exist in all “civilised” societies world-wide, the question that still unnerves me is, we now find a bright young successful Doctor, brutally violated and murdered the vilest way, in the safety of her own College, a 138-year old, State-of-the-Art Government Medical College and Hospital, Ranked amongst the Top 19 Medical Colleges Nationally (NIRF-2024) and winner of the “Shasthya Ratna Award 2022”.
Isn’t it unbelievable, this could happen in spite of a State Police Outpost right inside the campus, regular uniformed security guards around, electronic surveillance systems, Professors, Nurses, Warders and Co-students and that too whilst on her duty? And does it not hang our heads in shame, as elders, remembering the tragedy of the gentle Nurse in the King Edward Hospital Case, Bombay 51 years ago!
I will not go into the details of this case, it’s by now known well to everybody, I’ll try and structure my questions that arise from this horrific incident.
My take: I recall a few previous cases which also evoked national outcry this millenium viz, The Vishakha Case 1997, The Nirbhaya Case 2012, The Shakti Mills Case 2013, The Kamduni Case also 2013, The Ranaghat Case 2015, The Delta Meghwal Case 2016, The Unnao Case 2017, The Kathua Case 2018 and the Hathras Case 2020 and I found so much in common yet so much different in this particular case. There were multifarious gaps found by the Courts in the investigative phases in most cases, there were issues of tampering of evidence, unseemly hurry in disposing of the victims’ body, amateurishy handled post-mortem processes, there were issues of juvinility amongst culprits, backtracking of witnesses in many cases, and politicisation in most cases all with the inevitable last line: justice delivery, a resounding SEVEN YEARS on an average (if at all justice did come at the end)! What then did we learn from our past experiences? Yes, we made new Laws, we made the Vishakha Guidelines in 1997, we made “Sexual Harassment of Women (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act 2013”, we made the “Criminal Law Amendment Act (Nirbhaya Act) 2013” and then? How many more do we make in the States? MP has one, Andhra has one, Maharashtra and now Bengal passed one yesterday and several others but then why do we still have on an average five reported rape-murder cases a week 2017-22 where only two-thirds saw convictions (NCRB data)?
No, I think our system gears itself only on what happens AFTER a rape-murder case! and the Answer..”Death to the perpetrator.. by Sunday!!”..thunders the State Government itself! We act faster AFTER our bridges fall and AFTER our trains derail!
a) Prevention: The prime and ONLY accused till date is an insider. If that is true,
1. The mere presence of an immaculate CCTV System would have been an active deterrent! Sadly, I learnt significant numbers of the Cams were non-functional. Who’s going to answer?
2. Isn’t there an “Internal Complaints Committee” and a “Local Complaints Committee” at the College in terms of the Visakha Guidelines of the Supreme Court and the Sexual Harassment Prevention at Workplaces law? What were the complaints, escalation and actions therefrom all these twenty-seven years? (Note: the accused is an insider and the issue here is safety at workplace!)
3. Was it legally permissible for a not resident-doctor to be worked in a continuous shift for 36 hours at a stretch, as reported, excepting on specific emergency? if yes, what facilities does the law provide for and were these in place? Particularly, facilities that are indispensable for ladies?
4. Was there in place a security-code for the establishment? If yes, how can a Non-Regular Non-Rostered person, freely roam about the Wards in the hospital at dead-night, where I’m sure there would have been serious, infectious and sensitive-case patients under treatment. (Note: this was the Chest Ward!)
b) The Investigation: I know, Medics are also trained on communication and breaking news to kins. (NIH PMC)..but what sort of communication goes after detection of the crime to the Doctor’s parents? Three phone-calls each mysteriously different from the preceeding one? I said, this case has differences from a few previous cases of rape-murder..this is one! The other notable points however were carbon copies of nearly all the preceeding investigative fiasco’s viz premature labelling “suicide”, a chaotic and “altered” place-of-crime infiltrated by all and sundry, wiping out most traces of evidence, a post-mortem report with naive vagueness, inordinately delaying the FIR process, in short every little impediment to a normal investigation process which could have been there, was there!
I’m not sure whether a code of procedures authorised by the NMC exists or not, specifically for unnatural death cases, in case it’s there, I sincerely hope they would recirculate the document well and not wait till the next Rape-Murder to happen!
Drafting a new “stringent” law could probably be the easiest thing for the Bengal Government to do, borrowing from others, and voting it in the Assembly, but who takes responsibility for its enforcement?
Not in another law, the real answer lies in strict compliance of laws ALREADY there in the BNS 2023 and those discussed above, audit institutional compliances and penalise non-compliances. That’s the only way!
And before I Conclude; Notable was the Supreme Court’s suo-motu cognisance of the case and Civil Society across the World standing in solidarity in one voice, as if in deference to Martin Luther King Jr’s remarks to the silent Civil Society sixty years ago, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
(Binayak Datta is a
finance professional)