‘If You Can’t Trust…’: RG Kar Hospital’s Newly Appointed Principal Loses Cool On Protestors

Kolkata Rape-Murder Case: Following the violence during the midnight protests against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, protesting doctors on Thursday mounted pressure on the newly appointed principal, Suhrita Pal to take action against the mob attack. 

As the demonstrators demanded immediate action against the midnight mob attack and meet the demands of students and doctors, Pal lost her cool. While addressing the students, Pal said, “If you can’t trust me for one hour then send me home also. I need one hour to do some official work. You need to believe me, I won’t go. You have to believe me. If you can’t believe me then don’t expect anything from me”.

VIDEO | “You (students) will have to believe somebody or the other. You will have to trust me. You will have to give me one hour,” says RG Kar Medical College’s newly appointed Principal Suhrita Pal while interacting with protesting students.

(Full video available on PTI Videos… pic.twitter.com/oyl0tHCglb

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 15, 2024

The midnight protests against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, which were intended to be peaceful, turned violent after “outsiders” entered the college premises and vandalised the property.

Several videos and images of the violence surfaced on social media in which a mob of miscreants were seen entering the college and vandalising property. They also managed to infiltrate the protest and attack the demonstrators, including doctors.

A postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata while on duty last week. The body of the 32-year-old woman was found on August 9 morning in the seminar hall of the government-run hospital in the West Bengal capital.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association on Thursday night announced a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services from 6 am on August 17 to protest against the alleged rape and murder of the trainee woman doctor. Essential services will be maintained and casualty wards operational, the medical body said in a statement.

Out-patient departments (OPD) will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted. The withdrawal is across all sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing services, the IMA said.

“Subsequent to the brutal crime in R G Kar Medical College, Kolkata, and the hooliganism unleashed on the protesting students on the eve of Independence Day (Wednesday night), the Indian Medical Association declares nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine from 6 am on Saturday 17.08.2024 to 6 am Sunday 18.08.2024 for 24 hours,” the statement said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

“Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses. Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of the authorities concerned to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers,” it said.