What sort of a response would the people of Bengal, nay the entire country, expect from the West Bengal government to the horrific rape and murder of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical college in Kolkata to reassure them that the perpetrators are brought to justice and such incidents are not repeated again?
It has been over a week since the 31-year-old trainee doctor was killed during duty hours at a place where she cared for and tended to patients.
Till now, however, there has been no development to reassure citizens that the state machinery and the judicial system are fast-tracking the case to guarantee justice to the victim and her family and ensure strict punishment to the perpetrator/s.
More worryingly, there’s a horrible sense of déjà vu when one recalls such crimes in the past — when legal processes moved at an agonisingly slow pace, giving very little relief to victims and their loved ones.
While the RG Kar medic’s rape-murder case is a tragic reminder of the horrific 2012 Delhi gang rape incident, (the young trainee doctor has also been named Abhaya and Nirbhaya 2), other cases have also sent shockwaves across the nation and Bengal.
In 2013, a young college student was gang raped, mutilated and murdered in Kamduni of North 24 Parganas District. The victim was given the sobriquet Aparajita and her murder, too, caused widespread outrage.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was heckled as she arrived in Kamduni after the girl’s body was discovered.
A year before that, in 2012, another storm arose when a woman was raped in the heart of Kolkata, in tony Park Street.
Banerjee’s stance in the 2012 rape case seems to have become the standard operating procedure to suppress such tragedies.
That is, allege that the crime stems from a political conspiracy and turn it into a social-media game of vendetta.
Banerjee questioned both the incidents of 2012 and 2013 and hinted that these were conspiracies. She also accused other political parties of instigating violence.
Doesn’t this seem too familiar in the RG Kar case too?
She has disregarded the enormity of the tragedy and said it was political vendetta against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
As far as fate of the culprits is concerned, in the Kamduni rape case, the Calcutta High Court recently commuted the death sentence of two convicts in the case, while one person earlier convicted and sentenced by a trial court to death was acquitted of all charges.
The Supreme Court is yet to give a final verdict on this.
There was another case in 2013. A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang raped twice in Madhyamgram in the outskirts of Kolkata and died of burn injuries. Her father alleged she had been burnt alive to prevent her from giving a statement to the state’s Governor.
It was alleged the police first tried to pass off the incident as self-immolation and the probe proceeded at a glacial pace till the parents filed a High Court appeal.
Banerjee reportedly claimed that the incident had been “misreported.”
In 2014, a 15-year-old Scheduled Caste girl was allegedly raped and killed after she protested the humiliation of her family at a kangaroo court in Jalpaiguri district.
In 2015, a 71-year-old nun was raped at a convent school in Nadia district.
Then, too, the Opposition had demanded the CM's resignation.
And Banerjee, giving her now-trademark stock response, alleged that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party were behind the agitation.
Since then there have been ample 'reported' and 'unreported' rape cases in West Bengal.
How can one forget the alleged rape cases reported from Sandeshkhali?
In the RG Kar case, Banerjee has been vocal enough to condemn the tragedy.
But she has also, reportedly, said what has happened cannot be undone and expressed her willingness to give ₹10 lakh to the victim’s family.
It is true that the damage cannot be undone, but the state administration and judicial system can set an example by cooperating with CBI to ensure quick completion of investigations and ensuring that strict punishment is delivered to the perpetrators.
At least, for once the nation can expect the pattern of excuses and blame games to end and get some solace from the fact that the victim gets justice denied to her thus far.
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