RG Kar rape and murder: A year on, junior doctors to hold night-long torch rally in Kolkata

Kolkata: West Bengal Junior Doctor’s Forum, which led the protest against the rape and murder of RG Kar post graduate doctor from August last year, on Tuesday announced that they will be organizing a night-long torch rally on the intervening night of August 8–9, marking one year of the gruesome incident.

The PGT doctor was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024. On January 18, a trial court in Kolkata’s Sealdah convicted prime accused Sanjay Roy for the rape and murder of the PGT doctor and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The judge of the special court Anirban Das had observed that the crime was not “rarest of the rare”.

The ‘Abhaya Memorial Programme', will organize a torch rally will start from College Square and proceed to Shyambazar More, said Aniket Mahato, one of the face of the movement and representative of the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Forum (WBJDF).


"We will hold a torch rally on the intervening night of August 8-9 for the Abhaya Memorial Programme. After reaching Shyambazar, we will stay there the entire night and voice our demands," Mahato said.

WBJDF welcomed people from all walks of society to participate in the rally and urged them to join the rally. The movement for Abhaya has witnessed people joining in large numbers in West Bengal and across the country, demanding justice for the PGT medical student.

The on-duty trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the seminar room of RG Kar Medical Hospital on August 9 last year. Roy was arrested by the Kolkata Police the next day. The Calcutta High Court had on August 13 handed over the investigation to the CBI.

The rape-murder of the 31-year-old woman doctor had sparked nationwide outrage.

In October last year, junior doctors from various medical colleges, had observed a 17-day fast-unto-death from October 5, demanding transparency in the investigation and rejig of the infrastructure of the medical colleges.