Security personnel outside the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Audio recordings of phone calls, allegedly made by authorities of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata to the parents of the doctor who was raped and murdered surfaced on social media on Thursday (August 29, 2024) sparking allegations that the hospital authorities had not only peddled disinformation but were insensitive to the bereaved patients.
Three audio clips, first about 71 seconds, second 46 seconds and the final call lasting about 28 seconds had surfaced on social media and were aired by a television news channel, which contains voices of the parents of the deceased doctor and a hospital official.
In the first two conversations, the hospital official is heard informing the parents that their daughter was very ill and they should come to the hospital immediately. In the third and final clip, the caller who identified herself as the assistant superintendent of the hospital, “Yes, please listen… we were repeatedly telling you before… your daughter… may have… died by suicide… or, she may have passed away. The police are here. All of us from the hospital are here. We are calling you to ask you to come down quickly”.
The Hindu has not independently verified about the authenticity of the audio clips, but neither the parents of the victim nor the hospital authorities had said that the audio clips were fake.
The victim’s father said on August 9 that he received the first call from the hospital at 10.53 a.m. and subsequently received two more calls before he and his wife reached the hospital.
Responding to the audio clips, Indrani Mukherjee, Deputy Commissioner of Central Division of Kolkata Police, said the audio clips prove something which the police has been saying from the start that the Kolkata Police did not say that the death was due to suicide.
Meanwhile, the parents of the victim on Thursday (August 29, 2024) said that when they saw the body of their daughter it was covered with a blue sheet, whereas they believed that their daughter was using a green and a red sheet.
Responding to the questions raised by the parents, Ms. Mukherjee said that photography and videography sessions at the crime scene began at 12.25 p.m. on that day and the recordings took place in phases during inquest, forensic examination and post-mortem.
“In all our records, the colour of the sheet which covered the victim’s body was blue. It was seized and later handed over to the CBI,” the police officer said.
Ms. Mukherjee dismissed claims from the victim’s parents that the body was covered in a green sheet when they were allowed to see the deceased. “We have no evidence of any green sheet in our photo and video records. It was always blue,” the police officer said.
She, however, confirmed that the police had also seized a red coloured cloth from the crime scene which belonged to the victim. The body of the victim was recovered from a seminar room on the third floor of the emergency building of the hospital. The inquest and post-mortem have revealed clear signs of sexual assault on the victim.
There has been speculation on whether the crime scene was tampered with, an allegation that the Kolkata Police has denied. Earlier, a video of the seminar room where the body was found had surfaced where several people including doctors and police officers can be seen. The police had clarified that the crime scene inside the room was cordoned off and the crowd was several metres away from the body. The gruesome rape and murder of the post-graduate trainee doctor is being probed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Kolkata Police had arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic police volunteer, for the crime.
