Breaking the Silence.

 The Kolkata rape case has shaken the city and the nation to its core, reigniting conversations about the safety of women and the urgent need for judicial reform. In a society where such horrific crimes are all too common, the incident stands as a grim reminder of the vulnerability that women face daily. While this blog is based on my personal research and interpretation of available information, it reflects my views and should not be considered an authoritative source. My goal is to shed light on the details of the case and its societal implications.

Around 22 mins later, at 11:15 AM, the same person calls the parents again and says your daughter has committed s**ci*e. And during the re-examination process, they focuses on one person who was wearing shorts and sleeveless t-shirts and was roaming around in on the 3rd floor seminar hall around 4 AM. The CCTV camera shows that on his shoulders, there are Bluetooth earphones. The disgusting thing is that the principal tried to blame the victim. "He said that it's irresponsible for a girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night". But the Bengal Government didn't accept his resignation instead transferred him to Calcutta National Medical College where he became the principal. But isn't it the responsibility of the Bengal government and the Kolkata police to stop violence and maintain law and order? There's been such a heinous incident in the country that you'll get goosebumps. On the day of Raksha Bhandhan Millions of brothers in our country tied Rakhi to protect their sisters from our own society. The incident in Kolkata has shown how our society is falling women.

Where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should have stopped such incidents she instead is holding a protest march in her state. And instead of protecting the people, the Kolkata police is sending the notices on twitter. What's going on in this country? What happened in this incident ? And who's responsible ? I'll try to give details about the same.

RG Kar Medical College is based in the Shyambazar locality of north Kolkata. It was found in 1886 and is one of the oldest medical colleges in the country. And an incident happened in this old hospital that shock the entire country. 8th august, 11 AM. A 31 year old post graduate trainee was on a 36 hour shift. Post graduate trainee are basically medical doctors who are doing a mater's degree in specialization. And for this trainees 24,36 even 74 hours shifts are very common. During this shifts, they have to be on call. This means they can rest, but they have to come back to work as soon as a call rings. She spoke to her parents at night and said goodnight on the phone after this, she started doing her medical rounds in the hospital and this was very common foe her. At 2 AM , she took a break from her medical rounds and had dinner with four colleagues out of them 1 was intern, 1 was house staffer and 2 were post graduate trainees. In the third floor seminar hall of the college's Pulmonology department, she ordered food and started watching Olympics on TV. 

Seminar room is a 40 by 30 feet room where 50 people can sit and to enter the seminar room, you have to pass a corridor room from the third floor lift where CCTV cameras are installed. But there were no CCTV cameras inside the seminar room. At 3AM, an intern wakes her up to show her a report. but after seeing the report she goes back to sleep. Next day at 7:30 AM, a 31 years old post graduate trainee's body was found in the same hall with 10 injury marks. Her body was semi-naked and blood was oozing from her eyes and private parts. At 10:53 AM , the hospital's assistant superintendent calls the girl's parents and tells them to come to the hospital as her daughter was unwell. After 22 mins, at 11:15 AM, the same person calls the parents again and tells them that their daughter had committed s**ci*e. The hospital made the girl's parents wait for 3 hours before showing the body. After the incident, the police commissioner of Kolkata and state health secretary reached the hospital for an investigation

Now the protests have began and demanded an autopsy. After this, protests started all over the country. On the morning of Aug 9, the first police officers reached the crime scene. Because their duty is in the outpost of the hospital so they can reach there quickly. They immediately inform the Tala police station, in whose jurisdiction the hospital is located. A team of officers arrives at the police station, including detectives from the Homicidal Wings. At 11:30 AM, forensic experts arrive and a case of unnatural death is registered. After the family's police complaint, the case is changed to a r**e and m****r case. The police team installs 15 computer screens in a room of the hospital and starts checking all the CCTV footage. After this, the investigation begins.  That night, five people were on night duty, they are separated and interrogated one by one because the statements of these five people are similar, so they were released from Police custody. During the re-examination process, they focus on one person who was wearing shorts and sleeveless t-shirts and was roaming around the third floor seminar hall at 4:AM. The CCTV camera showed that he had Bluetooth earphones on his shoulder. This detail is important why? lets see in a while. 

A police official from the hospital outpost identifies this person. His name was Sanjoy Roy. The next day , on 10th Aug, a police team is sent to arrest him. During this investigation progresses and they find Bluetooth earphones at the crime scene. Sanjoy is asked by the police where his Bluetooth earphone are. Sanjoy says they are lost, but when the police turns on Sanjoy's Bluetooth earphones, the phone's Bluetooth earphones automatically connect to the earphones which were found at the crime scene. After this Sanjoy becomes the 1st suspect in the police record. The 1st time Sanjoy entered the hospital that night, he was drunk. The Kolkata Police say that Sanjay has confessed but for the sake of evidence, they found several injury marks on Sanjoy's body and they also tried to match the skin samples from the victim's nails with Sanjoy's DNA samples. Hospital staff said that Sanjay used to come there and he was close to Principal Sandeep Ghosh. Sanjoy is a suspect now because there's no official forensic report yet that's why there's no conclusive evidence in the CBI or police investigation. Even after Sanjoy got caught, many people are still unhappy, they say that Sanjoy didn't do it alone. As in autopsy reports showed that this can't be done by one person. On 9th Aug at 4:40 PM, the report showed that many hairs were found on the mattress. Dr. Subarna Goswami, a former student of RG Kar, read the report and said that multiple penetration were done. This means that more than one person was involved. 

 RG Kar's principal is Sandip Ghosh, as told you earlier the victim's family was told that the girl committed suicide. Since the principal is the administrative head of college, the responsibility lies with the principal. The worst part is that the principal tried to blame the victim. He said " It's irresponsible for a girl to go to a seminar hall alone at night". A medical college principal is like those people who blame girls for the atrocities they face. After saying such a despicable thing, protests against the principal started. Finally, three days later, on August 12, he resigned. But the Bengal government didn't accept his resignation, instead he was transferred to Calcutta National Medical College where he became the principal. So if you don't take up the responsibility and say such a despicable thing, you won't be removed from your position, you'll be made the principal of another medical college. WOW!!!

Many students who have worked under Sandip say that this principal is no less than a dictator. A medical intern said in an interview that Dr. Sandip Ghosh can do anything against you. He uses his political connections to threaten the students if they don't listen to him. A victim's family lawyer said that the government transferred the principal instead of removing him. How can we trust the government ? That's why the court transferred the case to the CBI due to the loss of public trust in the Kolkata police regarding the case, concerns have grown over the credibility of the investigation. To understand why people don't trust the West Bengal government in an independent investigation, you need to understand how Bengal's politics works. West Bengal politics is controlled by the Trinamool congress which they learned from the communist Party. This means that whether it's university politics or panchayat politics, Trinamool Congress has a say everywhere. This issue reached the court on 13th August. This issue reached the court on 13th August, where the victim's family lawyer argued that the case should be immediately transferred to the CBI, warning that evidence could be destroyed if delayed. The lawyer made many arguments for example:

1) The family was told that it was suicide case.

2) They had to wait for 3 hours before seeing the body.

3) There was evidence of rape and murder, but 1st case filed by the Kolkata police was of unnatural death. 

4) Dr. Sandip Ghosh was transferred instead of being terminated. 

Kolkata high court heard the arguments and transferred the case to the CBI. However, before the CBI could even begin its investigation, a video went viral showing that the seminar room, where the victim was raped and murdered, was adjacent to another room that was suddenly being renovated. A student protester asked why the crime scene was being demolished when an investigation was going on. There was such a big incident in your college and the CBI is about to start an investigation then, why the renovation ? What's the hurry ? Other than this, there were rumors on social media that the college was involved in a sex and drug racket. Since the details are gruesome and there is no concrete evidence or details in any official report, therefore no comments will be involved. But the public had lost trust in the administration, and they no longer believed the investigation would be conducted properly.

 On 14th August, they planned a silent protest. Before Independence Day, "Reclaim the Night" marches were held across the country to assert women's right to participate freely in public spaces. While the protests remained peaceful nationwide, a sudden outbreak of violence occurred near RG Kar Hospital. At around 12 PM, chaos erupted as unknown individuals breached barricades, assaulted doctors, and vandalized hospital property. Even emergency beds, with patients still occupying them, were destroyed in the violent attack. And helpless doctors, nurses and police officers had to flee. Protesters said that these unknown people had come to the protest site in trucks ,  but no one knew who they were. Many of them were trying to climb up to the girl's hostel. A panic- inducing environment was created. At 2 AM, Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal arrived at the scene and blamed the media for creating distrust between the police and civil society. BJP State Secretary Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the perpetrators were goons associated with the Trinamool Congress, while Mamata Banerjee countered by accusing CPIM and BJP supporters of being responsible. The Kolkata Police have now turned to Twitter in an effort to identify those involved in the violence. Still we don't know who they were and what motivate them to enter the hospital. Many people say that they were sent by someone to destroy evidence. There was a lot of commotion in the hospital. Kolkata police have clarified that the crime scene was a seminar room and that it wasn't damaged. However, isn’t it the responsibility of the Bengal government and Kolkata police to prevent violence and maintain law and order? Instead, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a protest on 19th August, calling for capital punishment for rapists. This feels like a case of 'the pot calling the kettle black,' given that a gruesome rape occurred in the state capital. In response, rather than taking strict action, the principal, who is the administrative head of the medical college, was merely transferred instead of being dismissed. This case has now been transferred to the CBI, and yet there’s a demand for speedy justice and capital punishment. The police and the government are under Mamata Banerjee's control, so what is all this drama about? By demanding the death penalty in her protest, Mamata Banerjee is trying to divert the attention of you, me, and everyone else from the real issue at hand.

There are many on social media claiming that rapes happen in India because the punishment isn’t strict enough. They point to countries like North Korea, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia, where rapists face harsh penalties, suggesting that if India followed suit, it would become a safe and developed country. This argument, however, is absurd, and here’s why: In 97% of rape cases in India, the victim knows the perpetrator, meaning the rapist is often a friend, family member, or neighbor. If the punishment is death, what do you think will happen to the victim? She will likely be pressured to remain silent, to protect the family member from a death sentence.

Secondly, a criminal considers two things: the strictness of the punishment and the likelihood of being caught. The country is obsessed with severe penalties—calls to hang or shoot rapists. But we overlook the second factor: Do you think the rapist is unaware of the consequences? He knows, but he’s confident the case will be buried. In fact, the conviction rate for rape in India is just 27%, meaning no one is convicted in 73% of cases. Instead of focusing on harsh punishments, we need to invest in better policing and faster judicial processes. For example, in 2019, after a notorious rape and murder case happened in Hyderabad, the police encountered and killed the four suspects within just 30 minutes. The whole country celebrated after the Hyderabad encounter, thinking justice had been served to the rapists. But did rapes stop after this encounter? No. Neither the policing nor the judicial system has changed. Mamata Banerjee is misleading the public by demanding the death penalty. Instead, she should focus on improving the police force in Kolkata and promoting gender equality among children. We must remember that rape is just one form of sexual exploitation. Every day, girls face other forms of harassment—being stared at, taunted—these are all forms of exploitation. This problem will only be solved when we educate our children properly.

As we demand justice for the victims, it's crucial to remember that true change doesn’t come from punitive measures alone, it comes from addressing the root causes of violence, systemic failures, and societal mindsets. The fight against sexual exploitation requires more than just harsh penalties; it needs deep cultural transformation, better policing, and a justice system that delivers swift, fair outcomes. Throughout this blog, I’ve used strong language to emphasize the gravity of the issue, but my intention is not to hurt or offend anyone. Rather, it is to shine a light on the urgency of these matters and inspire meaningful action. Breaking the silence is just the first step, what we do next will determine whether our society can truly protect and uplift its most vulnerable.