A month after crime, doctor’s Sodepur neighbours still looking for answers

KOLKATA: From a “quiet nondescript para” in the Sodepur neighbourhood to a vocal and agitated one seeking justice “for their daughter”, the places around where the RG Kar rape and murder victim stayed have undergone a complete change in the past one month.

The Sodepur neighbourhood, including Sukanta Pally, Bhombolar More, Chandralok, HB Town and Amarabati, has seen a lot of changes. With the sound of protest rallies calling for justice every now and then, entry of police, the CBI or media, residents have been seeking only one answer for the past 30 days.

Anger is palpable among the residents. They were used to seeing a young lady getting out of a two-storey building, boarding a car with a bag in hand while her mother would be standing at the verandah till the car got out of her vision. “The scene was familiar to most of us. She would ride pillion on her father’s two-wheeler upto the main road before the car was bought,” said Suman Saha, a grocer whose shop is just 20meters away from her residence. This sight has been missing for the last month.

Now all one can see are guard rails and cops posted at the entry point of the victim’s house, changing the ambience of the locality which was known to be a calm and quiet ‘para’ in Sodepur for so many years. “Almost every person crossing this point near the victim’s house will surely either try to take a photo or look at the house with anxiety and curiosity,” said Jhuma Das a local shop owner.

A sense of fear has been looming large in the neighbouring localities. “My sister, a student of Class XI, would go for tuition on her own, but my father has strictly ordered my mother and me to accompany her every time she goes outdoors,” said Pramit Saha, a local youth working with a Bengaluru-based company.

A young engineer who works in Salt Lake too is now being escorted by her mother. “My wife started accompanying my daughter to her workplace for the last one month and brings her back home every evening,” said Paritosh Roy, a Sodepur resident.

“I am not even going to my boutique at Sodepur,” said Lili Sarkar, an Amarabati resident who stays nearly 3km away from the RG Kar victim’s house adding, “Not only the rape and murder, the brutality the trainee doctor had to experience has shaken us women the most.”

Pockets of Sodepur ‘paras’ especially at HB Town More which would be crowded with youths during evening addas a month ago are nowadays seeing a gathering of just a handful of youths.

“Some of our old friends would gather at a tea stall at Sodepur railway platform for years. There are other groups of elderly people and hawkers. The topics at these addas were different for different groups. But since the RG Kar incident all of us have the same topic - justice for RG Kar,” said Agnihotri Gupta, a Calcutta University student who has attended 5-6 protest rallies in the last one month.

Small social media groups have been formed in almost every locality and housing society to organise protest rallies.