Trinamool MP To Join Midnight Protest Over Kolkata Doctor’s Rape-Murder

Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray has said he will join the midnight protest over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The veteran leader announced his decision on X. “Tomorrow I am going to join the protesters particularly because I’ve a daughter and little granddaughter like millions of Bengali families. We must rise to the occasion. Enough of cruelty against women. Let’s resist together. Come what may,” he said in a post late last night.

When a ‘X’ user said the senior leader may be thrown out of Trinamool Congress for joining a protest against his own government, he responded, “Please need not worry for my fate. Blood of a freedom fighter flows in my veins. I’m least bothered.”

Tomorrow I am going to join the protesters particularly because I’ve a daughter and little granddaughter like millions of Bengali families. We must rise to the occasion. Enough of cruelty against women. Let’s resist together. Come what may.

— Sukhendu Sekhar Ray (@Sukhendusekhar) August 13, 2024

The 75-year-old has been a member of the Upper House of Parliament since 2011 and has also served as Deputy Leader of the Trinamool Congress in the House.

Women in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal will take to the streets late tonight as part of a massive protest against the doctor’s rape and murder at the state-run hospital. The protest, which will begin at 11.55 pm, has been described as, “For women’s independence on the midnight of independence”.

Posters sharing locations of the protest are being shared on social media, with new spots being added as more and more people across the state suburbs join it. Men have also decided to join the protest in large numbers to show their solidarity with the cause. Several prominent figures, including actor Swastika Mukherjee, actor Churni Ganguly and filmmaker Pratim D Gupta, have called upon people to join the midnight gathering at locations most convenient to them.

Kolkata has been shaken by the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at the state-run hospital while she was on night duty. The doctor was found dead on Friday morning in a seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in the northern part of the city. She had injuries on her eyes, face, mouth, neck, limbs and private parts.

Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer who frequented the hospital, has been arrested in connection with the case.

The Calcutta High Court yesterday ordered that investigation into the case be transferred to the CBI. The court noted that there were serious lapses on the part of the hospital administration and flagged the possibility that evidence may be destroyed. “Even after five days there have been no significant conclusions which should have happened by now. Therefore, we are justified that there is every possibility that evidence will be destroyed. We deem it appropriate that the case must be transferred to CBI with immediate effect,” it said.