The Supreme Court today said that it took suo motu cognisance of the rape and murder case of a postgraduate medic at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, as it raised a systematic issue regarding safety of doctors across India.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, which had taken cognisance of the incident, said that if women were not able to go to work and working conditions were not safe, then they were being denied equality.
Justices JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra are part of the apex court bench.
The suo motu cognisance of the case, titled ‘In Re: Alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and related issue’, assumes significance in view of the fact that Calcutta High Court is already in action and has transferred the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The doctors’ strike over the rape and murder of the medic completed a week on Sunday and is now entering its second week. Patient numbers have fallen in some of the hospitals’ outpatient departments.
The protesting doctors want the CBI to catch the culprits and for the court to impose the maximum punishment on them. They also want an assurance from the government that “no such incidents occur in the future”.
The alleged rape and murder of the junior doctor in a seminar hall of the state-run RG Kar hospital in Kolkata has sparked nationwide protests. Indeed, protests have been held even overseas.
The medic’s body with severe injury marks was found inside the seminar hall of the hospital’s chest department on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day.
On August 13, Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI, which started its investigation on August 14.
The high court ordered the transfer of the probe to the CBI while hearing petitions, including one moved by the victim’s parents praying for a court-monitored probe.
