Notwithstanding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's warning of strict action if work is not resumed, the junior doctors carried on with their agitation.
The health minister said he is personally monitoring the health of Lakra.
The Trinamool Congress students' wing on Monday suspended a senior member of the organisation following allegations that he was seen, along with the police, in a room in a state-run hospital where the body of a woman doctor was found on August 9.
Banerjee, who also takes care of the home department, said Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal has offered to resign in the wake of the protests but "we need someone who knows law and order ahead of Durga puja".
Kolkata Police on Friday said it has so far arrested 19 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the metropolis.
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
The accused in the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder case, Sanjay Roy, was brought to the Sealdah court on Monday. Kolkata Police, fearing he would make further controversial statements, kept blowing the horn of the vehicle carrying him, preventing journalists from hearing his voice. This comes after Roy made remarks against the former Kolkata police commissioner and claimed innocence during his previous court appearance. The trial, which is being heard in-camera on a day-to-day basis, continues with the testimony of three witnesses on Monday. The CBI is investigating the case following an order from the Calcutta High Court. The body of the on-duty doctor was discovered in the seminar room on August 9, sparking nationwide outrage and protests. Former principal Sandip Ghosh and former officer in-charge Abhijit Mondal, accused of tampering with evidence, had their judicial remand extended till December 2.
Kolkata experienced a unique and powerful display of civic solidarity when residents turned off their lights for an hour from 9 pm on Wednesday and came down to the streets with burning candles to protest the murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital and to express support for the deceased doctor's family.
The decision to suspend the IMA membership of Ghosh, who is the vice president of the association's Kolkata branch, was taken by its disciplinary committee.
Despite the government setting a deadline of Wednesday for the junior doctors to resume duty and warning that ESMA would otherwise be invoked, the agitators continued their stir at all government teaching hospitals.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on Friday conducted simultaneous search operations at the residences of Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and three of his associates in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the institute, an officer said.
According to RDA president Hamza Malik, the availability of protective gear for doctors at the hospital had reached a critical point when they had threatened to boycott work if necessary gear was not made available immediately. The crisis was however defused on the intervention of the AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor, who assured them that their concerns were being immediately addressed.
Eighty-seven days after the body of a woman medic was found at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a Kolkata court on Monday framed charges against the prime accused, Sanjay Roy.
The Mamata Banerjee government will table the anti-rape bill in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday.
Mamata alleged that the BJP and the CPI-M were provoking doctors and giving communal colour to the issue.
The parents of the victim doctor in the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case have alleged that the investigation is incomplete and several others involved in the crime are still at large. The court is set to deliver its verdict on Saturday, with Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, facing charges of committing the crime. The victim's parents expressed concerns about the presence of other individuals at the crime scene who remain unidentified. The CBI, which is investigating the case, has sought capital punishment for Roy, claiming he was the sole perpetrator.
A special court in Kolkata on Thursday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a polygraph test on former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and four other doctors in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at the hospital, officials said.
The process of identification of victims by matching the DNA samples is currently underway, and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives once the process is complete.
Doctors went on a wild rampage in the Gorakhpur Medical College on Tuesday, beating up all and sundry including patients and journalists after the family of a fatal encephalitis victim blamed the child's death on "neglect" by the attending junior doctors.
Pronouncing sole accused Sanjay Roy guilty of rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at state-run RG Kar hospital, Sealdah court judge Anirban Das on Saturday said the convict had attacked the postgraduate trainee while she was asleep in the hospital's seminar room around 4 am on August 9, 2024.
The BCCI has amended its playing conditions, introducing a provision for "serious injury replacements" in multi-day domestic tournaments for the upcoming season.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an appeal in the Calcutta High Court seeking the death penalty for Sanjay Roy, who was sentenced to "life imprisonment until death" for the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The CBI argued that the crime falls under the "rarest of rare" category deserving capital punishment, while the trial court had ruled otherwise. The West Bengal government has also appealed for the death penalty, but the CBI opposed the state's right to file an appeal, claiming it was the prosecuting agency and therefore had the right to appeal on the grounds of inadequacy of the sentence. The high court will hear the appeals from the CBI, the victim's family, and the convict on January 27.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday dismissed a fake letter being circulated on social media in connection with the ongoing probe into the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata.
Over 33,000 doctors have applied for the available 22,000 National Health Service training posts.
The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised Kolkata Police for their 'extremely disturbing' delay in registering the case of a woman doctor who was raped and killed at RG Kar Hospital, while also urging the agitating doctors to return to work amid the fourteenth day of disruptions in healthcare services in Bengal's state-run hospitals.
Abundantly talented but more significantly, incredibly cool in crunch situations, that's how India's 88th Grandmaster and World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh was described by her formative coach Srinath Narayanan, who feels the 19-year-old chess wizard's composure is comparable only to cricket great Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The CBI did not find any large-scale conspiracy in the episode and would limit the charge sheet to offences of attempt to cheat or cheating, they said.
The West Bengal government has sought permission from the Calcutta High Court to appeal against the Sealdah court order that sentenced Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment until death in the RG Kar hospital doctor's rape and murder case. The state government is seeking the death penalty for Roy, the sole convict in the case, and has expressed dissatisfaction with the Sealdah court's verdict, which did not consider the crime "rarest of the rare." The court also ordered Roy to pay a Rs 50,000 fine and directed the state government to pay compensation of Rs 17 lakh to the family of the deceased doctor.
Although no fresh arrests were reported in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation continued with its questioning of top officials of the RG Kar Hospital.
Alleging that the West Bengal government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has failed to carry out its basic duties to protect the lives and properties of citizens, Governor C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday said that his office is already intervening in the RG Kar impasse under provisions in the Constitution.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud directed the protesting doctors to get back to work by 5 pm on Tuesday and assured them that there will be no adverse action if they resume duty.
The mother of Sanjoy Roy, convicted for the rape and murder of a doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, has said she accepts the verdict and believes her son should be punished, even if it means hanging. The court will announce the sentence on Monday.
The Calcutta high court on Friday observed that mob violence at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was an absolute failure of state machinery in West Bengal.
'If she manages to throw out people, go for surgical operations, clean up her image, she will be victorious.'
In a video message, Bose also said he will also socially boycott the chief minister.
The three doctors said in their bail plea they were not even aware of the victim's caste.
The decision followed a petition by former deputy superintendent of the medical establishment, Akhtar Ali, who sought an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged financial misconduct during the tenure of the college's former principal, Sandip Ghosh.
'If you are old enough to rape, you are old enough to be punished.'
The move came after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed Kolkata Police commissioner Anuj Sharma to deploy a nodal police officer in every hospital.
He further commented on the current state of public discourse, saying a "mob rule" is being created wherein politicians capitalise on certain incidents and assure people of the death penalty for culprits even though only the judiciary has the power to pass legal verdicts.
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