A Doctor’s Death and the Maze of Injustice

Months after the horrific crime at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College, justice for ‘Abhaya’ remains elusive as the system continues to betray her memory.

It has been nearly five months since a young doctor from R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata was raped and murdered. Yet justice remains a distant, fading hope. This is not merely a story of procedural delays but a glaring indictment of an investigative process ensnared in its own contradictions. It speaks to a larger malaise within institutions meant to uphold the law but which seem adept at burying the truth.

The crime itself was initially treated as a suicide. The first information report (FIR) was delayed by 14 hours, and even as the victim’s family pleaded for a second autopsy, their requests were ignored. This, coupled with the arrest and subsequent bail of two key figures—Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the college and Abhijit Mondal, the officer-in-charge of the local police station—has only deepened public mistrust. While the court cited insufficient evidence for their release, the public remains unconvinced, its scepticism fed by the glaring gaps exposed through relentless media scrutiny.

This was no random act of violence but a meticulously orchestrated crime, rooted in an institutional rot the young doctor sought to expose. Allegations against the college paint a harrowing picture: illegal medicine rackets, the sale of spurious drugs and a culture of bribery extending from Ph.D. approvals to personnel postings. The victim, determined to blow the whistle on these nefarious activities, became a threat to a deeply entrenched system. Her murder was not only a silencing act but also a grim warning to others.

The recent tragedy at Midnapore Medical College, where spurious saline bottles claimed several lives, underscores the perils of corruption in public healthcare. The same illegal networks implicated in Midnapore are linked to the allegations the R.G. Kar doctor had been investigating before her death. The parallels are too stark to ignore.

The investigation into the doctor’s murder has been marred by inconsistencies. Reports from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) and a Multi-Institutional Medical Board, including experts from AIIMS, have raised serious doubts about the official account. The supposed crime scene—a seminar room—showed no signs of struggle, a glaring anomaly in a case involving such extreme violence. Instead, investigators identified an alternate location: the orthopaedic operating theater on the seventh floor, a space conveniently shielded from CCTV cameras and accessible via elevator. This theater, reportedly under the purview of Sandip Ghosh, has been sealed since August, yet its implications remain conspicuously absent from the initial chargesheet.

More troubling still is the framing of the case against a single individual, civic volunteer Sanjay Roy. The 29-minute window during which Roy’s presence was recorded on the relevant floor seems impossibly brief for the heinous acts committed. Both forensic evidence and logical deduction point to the involvement of multiple perpetrators. By narrowing its focus to Roy, the investigation effectively absolves others who might have abetted or orchestrated the crime.

The victim’s parents have been tireless in their pursuit of justice. They have submitted a 50-point memorandum to the court and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), highlighting glaring omissions in the inquiry. Among their questions: Why were 68 individuals, reportedly present near the crime scene, not interrogated? Why were the four students who dined with the victim on the night of her murder—potentially key witnesses—never called to depose? And why has the role of the outsourced food delivery service, whose meal was reportedly adulterated, not been scrutinized?

Despite their efforts, the family’s pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears. Even the Supreme Court, which initially took suo motu cognizance of the case, appears to have shifted its focus. The Court’s primary concern seemed to be quelling the nationwide protests that erupted among doctors, who demanded safety and security at their workplaces. While the medical community’s fears were valid, the pivot away from delivering justice to the victim was a bitter betrayal.

The parents’ attempts to escalate the matter politically have also been thwarted. During a visit to Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declined to meet them. His reticence was a missed opportunity to channel public outrage into systemic reform. Shah’s silence resonated as yet another instance of political expediency triumphing over moral responsibility.

The law, with its procedural constraints, is struggling to keep pace with the human intelligence and common sense that demand justice. The evidence, though compromised, still speaks volumes about a crime too complex and too sinister to be the work of a lone individual.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and the clock is ticking. The parents’ call for a fresh investigation, bolstered by new leads and public pressure, deserves urgent attention. If justice remains elusive, the ramifications will extend far beyond the confines of R.G. Kar Medical College. The message will be that those who dare to challenge corruption in India’s institutions risk paying the ultimate price, with little hope of redress. This is not just the story of one family’s loss but of a nation’s failure to protect its citizens from the very systems meant to serve them. We owe it to the victim, and to ourselves, to ensure this failure is not the final word.

(The author is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. Views personal.)