The Calcutta High Court on Friday slammed the West Bengal government for failing to prevent vandalism at the R G Kar Hospital by a large group of armed miscreants in presence of police posted in the wee hours on Independence Day, Court sources said.
The Junior doctors were on a stage-in-protest demanding justice and security after one of their lady colleague was brutally raped and murdered in the premises.
“This is an absolute failure of the state machinery. There was a police force present and they failed to protect their own men and government property,” Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam noted, the sources said.
“This is a sorry state of affairs and how do these doctors work fearlessly without proper security?” the Chief Justice said while lambasting at the state government. ” You ( the government) often announce Section 144 CrPC for any reason and when so much trouble is going on, you should have cordoned the area,” the Judge observed.
The High Court on Tuesay ordered the CBI to probe the crime of the murder of the 31-year-old woman trainee doctor transferring the case from Kolkata Police.
According to the Kolkata Police, some 40 people, masquerading as protestors, entered the hospital premises, vandalised property and pelted stones at police personnel, prompting the force to lob tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.
The miscreants armed with lathis and other missiles began rampaging from 0030 hours for over half-an-hour destroying the hospital ground floor medical facilities, including the Emergency ward.
Police said. several CCTV cameras in and around the area were also destroyed. Some police personnel were also wounded in the brazen attack, for which so far 19 suspects were arrested till last night.
The Chief Justice told the court that it listed the matter because of emails it received due to vandalism at the hospital.
Meanwhile, former principal of the R G Kar hospital Sandip Ghosh moved a petition at the Calcutta HC seeking an early hearing after he received a summon notice from the CBI to appear in the murder case.
The CBI also summoned four batchmates of the deceased to appear at its city office.
