In one of the clips, the caller, a woman who identified herself as the assistant superintendent of the hospital, allegedly dialed the parents of the victim from the same number thrice within a span of around 30 minutes asking their urgent presence at the facility
Audio clips purportedly capturing conversations between parents of the Kolkata doctor raped and murdered earlier this month and at least two officials at the state-run hospital where she was on duty during the crime have surfaced online, reinvigorating a debate in the backdrop of claims that her family was not given correct information during the first calls. News18 couldn’t independently verify the veracity of the clips.
In the clips, purported officials — one male and one female — at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital could be heard telling the parents that they must rush to the facility. The woman who claimed to be the assistant superintendent of the hospital first told the parents first that their 31-year-old daughter was unwell, before saying in what is thought to be another call that she might have died by suicide. According to the website of West Bengal’s leading Bengali daily, the Anandabazar Patrika, there were three clips that have gone viral.
The trainee doctor’s body was found in the seminar hall on the fourth floor of RG Kar Hospital, also her workplace, on August 9. Her parents have previously said that the initial calls from the hospital had claimed suicide, and that they were made to wait for at least three hours before they could see the body.
Below is the summary of the calls
Official: She is unwell. Please come to the hospital. We’re admitting her.
Parents: Please tell us what has happened.
Official: She is really unwell, we’re admitting her.
Parents: Does she have fever, how bad is her condition?
Official: Doctors will brief you when you come.
Parents: Does she have fever?
Official: Can’t say, she might have died by suicide.
The clips were shared on X by the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has stepped up pressure on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s administration over the incident and demanded her resignation.
আর জি করের নির্যাতিতার বাবা মা কে সেইদিন কি বলা হয়েছিল হাসপাতাল এবং পুলিশের পক্ষ থেকে? শুনুন সেই ভাইরাল অডিও! pic.twitter.com/QSSraRuy28— BJP West Bengal (@BJP4Bengal) August 29, 2024
Viral Clips
The woman who could be heard in the clips allegedly dialed the parents of the victim and told them that their daughter was so ill that she had to be taken to the emergency section. “Her condition is really bad. Your daughter has been hospitalised. Please hurry,” said the woman. When a man, allegedly the victim’s father, asked repeatedly what had happened, the woman voice said: “I am not a doctor, I am an assistant superintendent. Your daughter has been admitted to the emergency, her condition is very bad. A doctor will tell you more about this.” At one point, the woman voice said the doctor “might have died by suicide”. In another clip, a man’s voice was heard informing the parents that they should rush the hospital.
It was not immediately clear if the clips were part of the same call or if there were two to three different calls. There was no immediate reaction from RG Kar authorities.
Police Respond
Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner Indira Mukherjee addressed a press conference in the evening, hours after the clips went viral. “We have been saying all thorough that Kolkata Police never informed the parents that the victim died by suicide. These audio clips only confirm what we have been maintaining so far,” she said, referring to social media chatter that it was the police force that told the parents that the doctor had died by suicide.
The doctor’s parents said they did not know anything about the viral audio clips that made media headlines. “We are not watching TV. How do we know who is doing what, and who accessed what,” the father was quoted by the Anandabazar Patrika as saying.
The RG Kar crime has shaken the country, brought the functioning of the hospital under scrutiny, led to the ouster of its controversial principal, spawned allegations of cover-ups and a larger conspiracy, triggered massive nationwide protests, and sparked a political war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP. One person, a civic volunteer named Sanjay Roy who had easy access to the hospital, has been arrested in the case.
