Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Over a hundred civil society members associated with Abhaya Manch, which was formed following the rape-murder of a medico inside RG Kar Medical College, assembled in Jadavpur area of Kolkata on Tuesday night in response to the 'Reclaim the Night Again' call.
The protesters, most of them women, were demonstrating against the alleged gangrape of a student near a private medical college campus in West Bengal's Durgapur.
The Women-Trans-Queer United wing of Abhaya Manch had given the call for the assembly of protestors at 8B bus stand - a popular protest site - around 8 pm demanding "exemplary punishment" for those involved in the crime against the second year medical student on October 10 night.
Singing choir songs like 'We Shall Overcome,' 'Intezar Hai' (wait continues) and 'Aar Kabey' (when will this end), the demonstrators held placards demanding safety and security for women.
Eminent academic Pabitra Sarkar and many civil right movement leaders were present at the spot.
The Women-Trans-Queer United wing spokesperson, writer-activist Satabdi Das, said, "On August 8 this year, we took to the streets demanding justice for our brutalised and murdered sister of R G Kar from late night hours. But nothing seems to have changed as predators are preying on women, including doctors, either inside medical college campuses or nearby."
The protesters also criticised West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her earlier remarks advising female students not to venture out late at night and expressed dismay that the CM could not meet the victim girl and her parents at the hospital in Durgapur where she is under treatment.
The survivor, a native of Odisha, was returning from dinner with a friend when some men accosted her near Shobhapur in the industrial township, about 170 km from Kolkata.
One year and two months ago, after the August 8 heinous crime at R G Kar, thousands of people, a sizable section of them women, had taken to the streets on August 14 and later during September in the city and across Bengal demanding justice. The protest was named 'Reclaim the Night'.
