Doctors who were at the forefront of the RG Kar protests two years ago said on Monday that little has changed with the change of government in Bengal.
Many of them were in Baruipur, speaking to police and residents after the rape and murder of the 12-year-old girl.
Asfakulla Naiya and Aniket Mahata, faces of the protests that followed the rape and murder of the junior doctor at RG Kar hospital in 2024, were among those present in the South 24-Parganas town. Debashis Halder, another protest figure, was not in Baruipur but said “eerily similar allegations against police and the ruling party” had resurfaced. Only the ruling party has changed between August 2024 and July 2026.
Residents told the visiting doctors that the police did not act on the family’s complaint until Sunday morning. They had approached the police on Saturday evening.
The doctors said locals identified some of the accused after scanning CCTV footage from a nearby building.
Naiya, now a senior resident ENT doctor at a state-run hospital in Hooghly, said: “The family approached the police in distress but did not receive help. Neighbours and villagers did what the police should have done to track the girl.”
He added: “There must be rule of law. Even an accused cannot be lynched. What happened shows people’s lack of faith in the police.”
A man was lynched in Baruipur on Sunday by a mob that accused him of involvement in the crime.
The crowd also pelted stones at the police after a lathi-charge, vandalised a police outpost and blocked roads and railway tracks. Protesters accused a local BJP leader of influencing the police to release one of the detained suspects.
Halder, a senior resident anaesthetist at a state-run hospital in Howrah, said allegations of political interference had also surfaced after the RG Kar crime. “We read reports and heard from our sources that Baruipur police were initially inactive and that the ruling party interfered,” he said.
“The government has changed. One factor behind the huge mandate for the current government was people’s anger over how the RG Kar case was handled,” he added. “The chief minister has said no one will be spared. I will also urge him to probe police inaction.”
Mahata, an anaesthetist with a non-commercial socio-medical organisation in Calcutta, said he saw the anger. “People said the family went to the police at 9pm on Saturday after searching for the girl since 4.30pm. They alleged that the first government presence came the next morning when central forces reached the family’s home,” he said.
“Residents claimed they scanned CCTV footage and saw men taking the girl away. Her body was found in a pond after the mob caught one accused and assaulted him.”
The child had left home on Saturday afternoon to buy food but did not return. Her body was recovered from a pond in the area on Sunday.