'Suspect It's Gang-rape Case; TMC Hand behind Hospital Vandalism': Counsel of Kolkata Doctor's Family to News18

A surfeit of reports about “150mg (150g in some cases) of fluid” initially rumoured to be semen found during the post-mortem of the victim doctor led many to conclude that this was a gang-rape case. But the fatal rape case of the young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has taken a turn. News18 accessed the post-mortem report, which specified that the 150 grams mentioned refers to the weight of the victim’s interior or internal genitalia, particularly the uterus, and not the weight of any fluid.

However, in an exclusive conversation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP and counsel for the victim’s family, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, said, “It is 150g fluid and whether it is semen or not is a subject of investigation. And we need to investigate and examine it further. In an earlier petition, it was mentioned as semen, but now it’s fluid; that’s the issue. The issue does not relate to the quantum of semen. The issue relates to the nature of injury on the body found by the post-mortem surgeon. So, if they are trying to get it confused by the quantum of semen, they are doing it deliberately. The allegation is that she was assaulted by a number of persons, not one. Forensic experts also said that the injury inflicted on her could not be the work of one person.”

Forensic scientists and doctors always document the weight of organs in such reports, and in this case, the 150 grams pertains to anatomical measurements, not fluid quantity, a senior forensic scientist, who has seen the post-mortem report, told News18 on Friday.

Bhattacharya though refused to share details of the post-mortem, maintaining that it did seem to suggest gang-rape and the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress was doing politics in a bid to cover up the matter.

The TMC says that Bhattacharya had earlier made claims about “semen” and was now backtracking.

The CPI(M) leader and other opposition members have been targeting West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “This is a clear gameplan of TMC. The CM addressed a meeting around 4pm. She said you all did agitation, now it is my turn. I will show. And then during midnight, the vandalism happened. These people were collected and gathered by the TMC, which is apparent from the manner in which people have been collected. Those identified are all under the control of the TMC,” Bhattacharya said.

The incident occurred during the ‘The Night Is Ours’ protest by women when unidentified miscreants forcibly entered the premises of the state-run medical college shortly after midnight on Thursday and carried out vandalism. The mob destroyed the emergency wing of the hospital, damaged the police outpost, and vandalised their cars, injuring 15 police personnel, many of whom are hospitalised.

The TMC is now using the vandalism issue to attack opponents. Around 30 people have been held by police so far and, according to the CM, the Left was behind the incident. Kolkata police have released photographs of several people believed to be involved. “This is another attempt by the Kolkata police to prove that they were involved. You don’t have to do heavy research realise that the vandalism was done by the TMC,” said Bhattacharya.

The TMC and West Bengal government have come under fire over the rape-and-murder case, which now is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. “They (TMC) now hope to do some damage control by shifting the focus to vandalism, making the point, as the CM did, that many expensive equipment were damaged, which could have saved lives, and also that the late-night vandalism has scared the patients to leave RG Kar Hospital,” said Bhattacharya.