The development brought to the fore a political contest over compensation for families of victims of unnatural death cases in West Bengal.
The mother of the RG Kar hospital rape-murder victim on Monday rejected Trinamool Congres MLA Kunal Ghosh's comparison between the Rs 10 lakh given to the family of a party worker who died in police custody in Halisahar, and the same amount of compensation announced after her daughter's death.
Key Points
- The development brought to the fore a political contest over compensation for families of victims of unnatural death cases in West Bengal.
- The RG Kar victim's mother Ratna Debnath, now a ruling BJP MLA, said the two cases were fundamentally different, arguing that her daughter was killed while on duty at a state-run hospital.
- Ghosh questioned why the TMC government had faced accusations of offering money to "buy silence" then, while a similar payment was now being defended as legitimate compensation.
The development brought to the fore a political contest over compensation for families of victims of unnatural death cases in West Bengal.
The RG Kar victim's mother Ratna Debnath, now a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, said the two cases were fundamentally different, arguing that her daughter was killed while on duty at a state-run hospital, and the then government could not escape responsibility for what happened inside there.
Her statement came after Ghosh backed Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari's decision to provide Rs 10 lakh to the family of deceased TMC worker Birju Koet, while drawing a parallel with the compensation announced by the then government for the RG Kar victim.
Ghosh questioned why the TMC government had faced accusations of offering money to "buy silence" then, while a similar payment was now being defended as legitimate compensation.
"There can be no comparison between the two incidents," Debnath said, pointing to what she described as differences in the government's response to the two deaths.
At Halisahar in North 24 Parganas district, the CM not only provided compensation but also gave a government job to a member of the bereaved family and initiated action against police officers accused in connection with the custodial death, she claimed.
"In my daughter's case, nothing of this sort was done," she said, alleging that despite the announcement of Rs 10 lakh compensation after the RG Kar incident in August 2024, the then government failed to ensure action against those actually responsible for her daughter's death.
The TMC government, led by then chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had faced a lot of criticism over her handling of the RG Kar case.
She also alleged that no adequate action was taken against police officers accused of dereliction of duty and attempts to suppress evidence.
"My daughter died in a government hospital. She was killed while performing her duty. The TMC government of that time cannot escape responsibility for her death," Debnath said.
Ghosh, meanwhile, sought to turn the compensation controversy back on his political opponents, arguing that the same amount which had triggered criticism when announced after the RG Kar incident was now being welcomed when offered by the BJP-led government.
"Money cannot compensate for a death. But there is a provision for compensation under government rules, and there are designated funds for it," Ghosh said in a social media post on Monday.
He maintained that the Halisahar compensation was justified and that the government was doing what it was required to do under the rules.
But Ghosh also revived the controversy surrounding the earlier Rs 10 lakh announcement, saying the decision of the then chief minister to offer compensation after the RG Kar incident had been portrayed by critics as an attempt to silence the bereaved family.
Ghosh said there was a prescribed framework, including a list of compensation amounts applicable in different circumstances, and argued that such payments had nothing to do with bribery.
He also claimed that a doctors' organisation had supported payment of government compensation to the family of the slain doctor.
The remarks have brought the two politically charged deaths into the same compensation debate, even as the circumstances surrounding them remain sharply contested.
The Halisahar case has become a fresh flashpoint in the state's widening political battle over police accountability, with the death of the TMC worker in custody triggering protests and a confrontation between the ruling establishment and the opposition.
The RG Kar case in 2024, meanwhile, had triggered one of the largest public mobilisations against the then government, with questions over hospital security, police handling of the investigation, alleged evidence tampering and administrative accountability becoming central to the political narrative.
The Rs 10 lakh figure may be identical, but the political meaning attached to it is now being fiercely contested. For the bereaved mother, compensation cannot be viewed in isolation from responsibility for a death inside a government institution.
For Ghosh, the controversy exposes what he sees as a political double standard -- compensation described as an attempt to silence the family in one case and defended as a legitimate government obligation in another.
The dispute thus goes beyond the money itself, touching upon a larger question that has repeatedly surfaced in Bengal politics: whether compensation is seen as relief for a bereaved family or as an admission of institutional responsibility.
