The top court pulled up the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government over its lackadaisical approach while dealing with the case and asked the CBI, which is currently investigating the case, to submit a report by Thursday.
Here’s what Supreme Court said:
- Supreme Court slammed Kolkata Police, asking how a mob of thousands entered RG Kar Medical College on the intervening night of August 14-15.
- The court further asked: “How mob vandalised equipment and Kolkata police did not know about it? What was the police doing? We are very very concerned,” the court said.
- Let the power of West Bengal not be unleashed on protesting doctors, civil society or lawyers,” the apex court warned.
- Supreme Court said power of West Bengal government should not be unleashed on protestors, its time of national catharsis
- The court rapped the Kolkata Police over the delay in filing FIR and asked what were hospital authorities doing.
- “If women are not able to go to work and conditions are not safe, we are denying them equality,” said Chief Justice Chandrachud.
- The court said that the Kolkata rape case is “not a matter of a particular offence, but something which affects the institution of health care pan-India”.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representating the Centre, said “Let West Bengal not be in denial mode, complete failure of law and order in state”.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard the case on Tuesday.
The apex court’s intervention comes after widespread outrage and strikes by doctors across the country, who are accusing the state police of mishandling the case.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the largest organization of doctors in the country, has spearheaded the call for justice for the murdered doctor. On Saturday, the IMA organized a nationwide strike, halting all non-essential medical services for 24 hours. On Wednesday night, thousands of women across the country took to the streets to demand justice for the victim, joining “Reclaim The Night” marches.
A postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata while on duty last week.
The semi-naked body of the 32-year-old woman was found on August 9 morning in the seminar hall of the government-run hospital in the West Bengal capital. A civic volunteer has been arrested in connection with the crime.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of the probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
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