Trigger warning: Mentions of gender based violence, descriptions of violence
Her proud father waved goodbye as she left for work, not knowing that the next time he would see his daughter, it would only be her dead body — inhumanly raped, and then brutally murdered, lying on the floor half-naked with pieces of glass in her eyes.
A Case Brief: What Happened?
Five days, seventeen hours, and forty-six minutes ago, on August 9th, a 31-year-old trainee doctor’s dead body, bearing multiple merciless injuries, was found in a government hospital in Kolkata.
This second-year postgraduate doctor was spending her night just like any other, unaware that it would be her last before she was subjected to the beastly behavior of a man, later blamed for it, and denied justice. Around 2 a.m., tired from her long day at work, she had dinner with her colleagues and decided to rest in the seminar hall due to a lack of rest space in the hospital.
Hours later, her broken bones and brutal injuries on several body parts (eyes, mouth, genitals, left leg, neck, right hand, ring finger, and lips) were discovered. It was initially declared to the victim’s parents that their daughter had committed suicide. Later, the autopsy report confirmed that she was gang-raped and murdered between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Sanjoy Roy, a 33-year-old civic volunteer, was initially suspected. Due to his connections with senior police officers and hospital authorities, Roy had easy access to various hospital departments. Along with this, Roy’s past behaviors, such as marital abuse and addiction to pornography, also came to light. Eventually, he was arrested by the police for his alleged role in the crime, as evidence including a torn Bluetooth earphone led the forces to him.
Lost Hope in Humanity
On August 9th, we not only lost a doctor to this utterly failed system but also all our hopes for humanity to bring change to this country.
“It was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night,” were the words of the hospital head, Dr. Sandip Ghosh, before he initially allegedly dismissed the case as suicide. But hold on… Don’t be dramatic; it is not the first time victim-blaming has been observed even in rape cases as brutal as this.
In the Gujarat Riots of 2002, Bilkis Bano, a Muslim woman who was pregnant at the time, was gang-raped by eleven men who were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2022, the government of our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi authorized the release of these men, who were welcomed out of prison with loud applause, flower garlands, and sweets. Not to mention the Nirbhaya Rape Case (2012). On December 16, 2012, Jyoti Singh, 23 years old, was gang-raped by 6 men on a bus in Delhi, one of the rapists being a minor. She was found on the road with her intestines exposed and was rushed to a hospital in Singapore and lost her life there.
“Did Nirbhaya really have to go watch a movie at 11 in the night with her friend? …Why did the [survivor] go to such an isolated spot? …Rapes take place also because of a woman’s clothes, her behavior, and her being at inappropriate places,” said Ms. Mirje, member of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women.
“Women, Reclaim the Night” — Justice for R J Kar
As the organizer of the protest based in Kolkata says, protests titled “Reclaim The Night” are expected to be seen across India as several activists and doctors march on the streets of Kolkata, Lucknow, Allahabad, Karnataka, Goa, and Chandigarh. Is there no limit to how outrightly shameless and useless a system can prove to be? All authorities and systems that we had created have failed us, and we are all equally responsible for it.
We WILL continue screaming and screeching regardless of their ignorance to disgustingly brutal deaths of women, one after another. We marched for Nirbhaya, we marched for Bilkis and ones after her. We will, with utmost agitation, march for the Kolkata Doctor too, but can you assure me — a fifteen-year-old girl who now believes it’s pointless to even hope for a safe future — that we won’t have to protest ever again? That we won’t have to beg for justice on the streets ever again? That we won’t ever in the future be subjected to the authorities’ fatal insensitivity towards us?
I know you believe your son isn’t capable of committing the crimes that these demonic criminals have been committing in the past, but take a minute, and for my sake, for your daughter’s, for your wife’s sake, for every woman’s sake, go to your son, your cousin, your friend this very instant and teach him, teach them how simple it is to be humane and encourage them to be one. Because there’s no way out of this vicious cycle, for how long will women be blamed for the crimes we’re subjected to? It’s time our sons learn to discern between right and wrong. It’s time they are held accountable for their actions, before someone you love has to go through what this Doctor and countless women before her went through.
The day we stop speaking out against injustice is the day we lose our humanity. Our silence will not protect us; our voices will be our salvation. So, we will march and scream and cry and yell and continue until we’re served with justice, until we’re given back our dignity and are treated as equally human as any other.
Images provided by author