On Thursday, August 29, 2024, audio recordings of phone calls allegedly produced by the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata authorities to the parents of the doctor who was sexually assaulted and killed went viral on social media. This sparked accusations that the hospital administration had not only distributed false information but also showed insensitivity towards the bereaved patients. Three audio clips—the first lasting roughly 71 seconds, the second 46 seconds, and the last call lasting roughly 28 seconds—that featured the voices of the deceased doctor’s parents and a hospital official went viral on social media and were broadcast by a television news channel.
The hospital representative can be heard telling the parents in the first two conversations that their daughter was seriously unwell and that they needed to get to the hospital right away. The caller, identifying herself as the hospital’s assistant superintendent, said in the third and last audio, “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”.
On August 9, the victim’s father stated that he got two additional calls from the hospital before he and his wife arrived at the hospital. The first call came in at 10.53 a.m. Indrani Mukherjee, the Deputy Commissioner of the Central Division of the Kolkata Police, responded to the audio clips by stating that they validated the police’s initial claim that the death was not the result of suicide.
Meanwhile, the victim’s parents stated on Thursday (August 29, 2024) that when they saw their daughter’s body, it was covered with a blue sheet, despite their belief that their daughter had used a green and red sheet. Responding to the parents’ queries, Ms. Mukherjee stated that photography and videography sessions at the crime site began at 12.25 p.m. on that day, and the recordings were made in stages during the inquest, forensic examination, and post-mortem.
When the victim’s parents were given permission to visit the deceased, Ms. Mukherjee rejected their allegations that the body was covered with a green sheet.
“We have no evidence of any green sheet in our photo and video records. It was always blue,”the policeman stated. She did, however, confirm that a red piece of cloth that belonged to the victim had also been taken by the police from the scene of the murder. The victim’s body was found in a seminar room located on the third level of the hospital’s emergency facility. Both the post-mortem and the inquest have unequivocally shown that the victim was sexually assaulted.
The Kolkata Police have refuted claims that the crime scene was tampered with, which have been the subject of debate. A video of the seminar room where the body was discovered has already leaked, showing a number of people, including medical professionals and law enforcement personnel. The gathering was many meters away from the body, and the police had made it clear that the crime scene within the room was roped off. The Central Bureau of Investigation is looking into the horrific rape and murder of the post-graduate trainee doctor (CBI).