Nurses protested vandalism at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Thursday morning, hours after unidentified individuals ransacked part of the facility where a female doctor was found dead last week.
The vandalism took place during midnight protests by women across the state, sparked by the alleged rape and murder of the doctor in the hospital’s seminar hall.
Nurses at the hospital responded by protesting the vandalism and demanding enhanced security at the facility. “Such hooliganism inside a hospital is unacceptable,” one of the protesting nurses said.
According to police, around 40 individuals, disguised as protesters, entered the hospital premises, vandalised property, and hurled stones at police officers, prompting the force to release tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The miscreants, armed with sticks, bricks, and rods, targeted the Emergency ward, damaging its nursing station and medicine store, as well as parts of the Out Patients Department (OPD) at the north Kolkata hospital, according to police.
Several CCTV cameras in the vicinity were destroyed, and vandals also ransacked a stage where junior doctors had been protesting since the evening of August 9 following the physician’s death.
A police vehicle was overturned, and several two-wheelers parked nearby were damaged in the attack. Some police officers sustained injuries during the incident. Hospital staff have since begun cleaning the damaged Emergency ward, where vital medical equipment and furniture were wrecked.
“The goons entered the campus and beat up agitating doctors. This was an attempt to break our morale so that we back out from the protest. But such incidents have only strengthened our resolve to fight till the end,” said one of the protesting doctors.
On August 9, a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and brutally murdered while on duty at the hospital.
A civic volunteer was arrested the following day in connection with the crime. On August 13, the Calcutta High Court ordered the immediate transfer of the investigation from the Kolkata Police to the CBI.