'Tried To Bribe Us, Rushed Her Cremation': Kolkata Doctor's Parents Question Police In New Twist, TMC Reacts

Family members of a trainee doctor, who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, have made startling accusations against the city police. Joining the protesting junior doctors at the medical institution on Wednesday (September 4), the victim’s parents alleged that the Kolkata Police attempted to hush up the case through bribery and by hurriedly cremating their daughter’s body.

This has led to another political meltdown with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) countering the allegations by posting a video of the parents on social media in which their version is different.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, pressed on for the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal.

What are the parents saying?

The doctor’s parents made strong allegations and said, that on August 9, a senior police officer offered them money and asked them to give their signatures on a white sheet of paper. They further alleged that there was a lot of pressure on them to cremate the body of their daughter against their wishes.

“The police, from the very beginning, tried to hush up the case. We were not allowed to see the body and had to wait at the police station while the body was taken for post-mortem examinations. Later, when the body was handed over to us, a senior police official offered us money, which we immediately declined,” the victim’s father said.

At the same time, countering the parents’ claims, Trinamool Congress IT cell head, Debangshu Bhattacharya Dev, posted a video on a social media platform, where the parents can purportedly be heard saying money was not offered to them.

Posting the purported video of the parents, Dev said, “Hear what the parents have to say.”

In the video, which could not be independently verified by News18, two persons can be heard saying, “We want justice, police did not offer us money…”

Here are a few questions posed by the parents:

• Why did the authorities tell us our daughter had died by suicide without checking?
• Why did it take three hours for us to see our daughter even after we begged the police to let us see her body?
• Why did the authorities delay the post-mortem and registration of a First Information Report (FIR) in the case?
• Why did the police file the case as an unnatural death in the beginning?
• Why did the hospital not talk to us for at least seven hours?

What is the BJP saying?

Posting purported videos of the doctor’s family members speaking at the RG Kar protest, the BJP launched an attack against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on social media.

“If Mamata Banerjee and the commissioner of Kolkata Police have any shame, they must resign immediately. If not, the people of West Bengal will anyway bring them down. Listen to the family of the victim as they narrate their ordeal,” tweeted BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya.

Malviya also narrated the family’s ordeal after the doctor’s body was found inside a seminar hall at the RG Kar Hospital. There are numerous accounts of how the parents were not allowed to see their daughter’s body for at least three hours after they reached the medical institution. Besides, the authorities tried to mislead them about their daughter’s death by calling it a suicide, he said.

“A relative of the young lady doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital says that the West Bengal administration was in a hurry to cremate the body. The family didn’t want the cremation to take place but the Mamata Banerjee administration didn’t listen and went ahead without the permission of the family,” Malviya alleged.

He accused senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is the counsel for the West Bengal government in the Supreme Court, of lying about the delay in the registration of the FIR. Malviya further alleged that the deputy commissioner of police (north) offered money to the victim’s father to withdraw the case.

Saying unless the Chief Minister and the Kolkata Police Commissioner step down, a “free and fair probe is not possible”. He said Banerjee and Goyal should be subjected to a lie-detection test and their call records must be examined.

“Unless Mamata Banerjee and Vineet Goyal, Commissioner of Kolkata Police step down, free and fair probe is not possible. Much of the evidence has already been destroyed. Call records of the CM and Kolkata CP, for 72 hours after the crime, should be put in the public domain. Their conversations investigated. Mamata Banerjee and Vineet Goyal must be subjected to polygraph test, to unearth the truth. The movement for justice will continue,” he added.