RG Kar rape-murder: Calcutta HC gives conditional nod to protest by doctors’ body in Kolkata

Kolkata, Dec 19 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted conditional nod to the West Bengal Joint Platform of Doctors, an umbrella body of senior doctors, to conduct sit-in demonstration in central Kolkata to protest the default bail to two accused of tampering of evidence in the case on ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August this year.

The single-judge bench of Justice Tirthanka Ghosh permitted the doctors’ body to conduct the sit-in-protest from Friday to December 26 but with a gathering of not more than 200 individuals.

Justice Ghosh directed the doctors’ body to immediately inform the West Bengal government about the details of their demands on which they will be organising the protest demonstration.

He also directed the state government to submit their opinion on the demands to his bench in the first half on Friday, following which he will specify the other conditions for conducting the sit-in demonstration.

The doctors had earlier sent an email to Kolkata Police seeking permission for the sit-in-demonstration at Doreena Crossing in central Kolkata. However, as the police denied the permission citing the possibility of traffic congestion in the area as the reason, the association on Tuesday morning approached the bench of Justice Ghosh, challenging the denial of police permission, and their plea was admitted.

Last Friday, the special court in Kolkata granted default bail to R.G. Kar’s former controversial Principal Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station, Abhijit Mondal, following the CBI’s failure to file a charge sheet against them stipulated within 90 days of their arrests.

Both Ghosh and Mondal were accused of misleading the investigation and tampering with evidence during the initial investigation carried out by the Kolkata Police.

The CBI has so far filed only one charge sheet in the matter where civic volunteer Sanjay Roy has been identified as the “sole prime” accused in the rape and murder case. Already, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front has threatened to resume their cease work protest which they withdrew earlier keeping the larger public interest in mind. The parents of the victim have already claimed that following the CBI’s failure in the matter, “protests on the streets” with spontaneous public support are the only way out left for them now.

–IANS

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