The woman whose alleged gang rape in a moving vehicle after leaving a Park Street nightclub Mamata Banerjee had infamously dismissed as a "sajano ghotona" died of a brain infection on Friday.
The 40-year-old mother of two - she was 37 when the alleged incident occurred early on February 6, 2012 - had an underlying medical condition that compromised her immunity and added to the complications associated with meningoencephalitis, an infection that causes inflammation in the brain and the membrane, medical sources said.
She died at 3.30am at the School of Tropical Medicine following multi-organ failure.
"The patient had been brought to our hospital at 11.30am on Thursday. She was comatose and her condition was extremely critical. She was admitted to the intensive therapy unit and put on ventilation but died early on Friday," said a senior official of the School of Tropical Medicine.
Doctors who had treated her at a nursing home before she was shifted to the state-run facility said the infection turned fatal mainly because of the medical condition she already had.
The woman had doggedly pursued the police to act on her FIR in the face of alleged resistance from the administration.
Three of the accused were arrested - two others, including the prime accused, are still absconding - after IPS officer Damayanti Sen, then heading the detective department of Calcutta police, went ahead with the investigation.
Sen was transferred to Darjeeling in the aftermath of the arrests.
The alleged gang rape had occurred around 3am on February 6, 2012, according to the complaint registered two days later. The woman said she had been raped by five men in the rear seat of a moving car after accepting a lift from a man she had befriended at the nightclub.
The woman, who used to live in Behala when the alleged rape occurred, had shifted to a new residence in another neighbourhood some months ago along with her mother and daughters. Friends and acquaintances said she had taken up a job with an NGO, where she counselled women who had faced violence.
In September 2014, she had alleged before the media that a popular bar in the Bhowanipore area had barred her from entering the premises because she was "the Park Street rape victim".
Last Sunday, she was admitted to a private nursing home on Wood Street with severe headache, seizures and high fever. Her family shifted her to the School of Tropical Medicine on Thursday.
"She wasn't responding to treatment and her condition was getting worse. Her family signed a risk bond and took her away on Thursday morning," said Sreekumar Chakraborty, general manager (operations) of Life Line Nursing Home, where the woman had been admitted first.
Infectious diseases specialists say many kinds of viruses and bacteria could cause meningoencephalitis, resulting in the inflammation of the brain and the membrane. When immunity is low, a wider range of microbes can flare up and cause inflammation.
"As different parts of the brain get affected, other vital organs like the heart and lungs that are controlled by that particular portion of the brain start malfunctioning. After a point, the patient doesn't respond to treatment," said an expert in infectious diseases.
Woman killed
A 28-year-old woman died after being hit by a school bus at the Ripon Street and AJC Bose Road crossing around 9.30am on Friday. Police said the bus was empty at the time of the accident. The driver has been arrested.
