Killed in own hospital: Doctor with a conscience who grew up in hardship, was looking forward to Durga Puja

KOLKATA: Parents, friends, teachers have one word for her: fighter. The 31-year-old PG trainee who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Hospital dreamed of becoming a gold medallist doctor, settling family debt, and improving lives of her mom and dad, whose long hours at a tailoring shop furthered her education and journey from the populous Kolkata suburb of Sodepur to RG Kar.

"We are a poor family and we raised her with a lot of hardship. She worked extremely hard to become a doctor. All our dreams have been shattered in one night," her 67-year-old father told TOI. Like all Bengali families, hers too were eagerly counting down to Durga Puja in October, which had acquired a special meaning because their daughter had started organising a Puja at home since 2021. "This was to be the third year of our home Puja and she had plans to organise a bigger one this time. This was meant to be a special occasion as she would have completed her PG," her mother said. "Now, all we want are arrests and proper punishment for all the culprits involved. Only that can offer solace to her soul."

In the family, she was cited as a role model, both for her good academic scores and her soft-spoken manner. "She cracked both JEE and medical," a relative said. "She chose MBBS and qualified for the course at two state-run medical colleges. Eventually, she chose JNM Medical College Hospital in Kalyani. When she decided to pursue PG, she qualified at two medical colleges and picked RG Kar (which is about an hour's bus ride from her Sodepur home)." A studious child, she scored 90% in Madhyamik (Class X state boards) and 89% in higher secondary. Her mother (62) said since their only child was born, their life had revolved just around her. "She meant everything to us," she said.

Sanjib Mukherjee, a next-door neighbour, said the neighbourhood had cheered the trainee doctor's academic landmarks and her father, too, had tasted success in his business, which made them look forward to better times ahead. "Her father rose from a tailor to a garment maker. The daughter was a dedicated medical student," he said, adding they had recently bought a new car and restored their old house.

She used to call RG Kar hospital her 'second home'
Other neighbours spoke about her love for animals - she cared for strays and fed and rescued them. "She was also very fond of gardening. Whenever she came home on leave, some of us would consult her on medical issues and she readily helped," said Kakoli Ghosh, a neighbour.

Before crime, a 36-hour shift

From a batch of MBBS students who had seen Covid pandemic break out as they learnt their craft, she had chosen respiratory medicine as her specialisation. At RG Kar, the campus she called her "second home", she immersed herself in patient management. Long work hours and a demanding academic schedule left her with little time even to sleep.

On August 9, after a shift and study cycle that stretched for 36 hours without a break, she had dozed off on a platform in the college's seminar room when she was sexually assaulted by one or more individuals (still the subject of a probe), and murdered in an attack of depraved brutality. Interns and fellow postgraduate trainees who had come to the seminar room the next morning found her body. Her laptop, a notebook & cellphone lay intact beside it.

One person, a civic volunteer who is mainly a tout at the hospital, Sanjay Roy, has been arrested but neither her colleagues nor parents believe he is the only person involved in the crime. "We want her tormentors to be arrested and punished the same way she was tortured," her Kolkata-based cousin told TOI.

Savagery of the assault and relatability with her life has since triggered an uproar, not just in Kolkata and within medical community but society at large, bringing women out in large numbers to protest against recurring sexual violence & harassment, scenes reminiscent of 2012 after the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi, which had similarly shaken conscience of the country.

'Was meant to be a doctor'

Arnab Biswas, one of her teachers at Kalyani JNM, said MBBS wasn't just a career choice she made, but a calling. "She was not only academically good but also very committed to the field. She used to get upset when someone got sick," he said. She had another trait that is any doctor's envy and a patient's relief. Great handwriting. "See, names of medicines are written so clearly that any patient can easily understand it. It is so sad and shocking for us that she isn't here anymore," said a fellow trainee at RG Kar, showing a prescription written in Bengali by her murdered colleague.



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