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The ongoing protests in Kolkata surrounding the tragic rape and murder of a young doctor took a dramatic turn on Saturday, as a planned meeting between the protesting doctors and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was abruptly canceled. This cancellation came on the heels of a late-night move by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which arrested two individuals, including the former principal of the hospital where the crime occurred, for alleged evidence tampering. The series of events unfolded amid a tense atmosphere of public outrage and demands for swift justice.
The day began with the doctors, who have been staging a protest at the state health secretariat demanding justice for their deceased colleague and the removal of several top officials, receiving a surprise visit from Chief Minister Banerjee. The Chief Minister invited the doctors to a meeting at her residence in the evening, a move that initially offered hope for a resolution to the escalating situation. However, the meeting quickly became mired in a dispute over live-streaming and recording. The doctors insisted on live-streaming the meeting, fearing that any recording provided after the meeting might be manipulated. While the state government argued that live-streaming at the Chief Minister's residence was not feasible, the doctors' demand for the right to record the meeting themselves was also rejected. The government proposed that the meeting would be recorded and the recording would be made available to the doctors later, but this compromise was deemed insufficient by the protesting doctors.
The impasse in the meeting, coupled with the CBI's simultaneous move to arrest Dr. Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College, and Abhijit Mondal, the officer-in-charge of the local police station, for their alleged role in evidence tampering, led to a rapid escalation of the situation. The CBI's action, taken while the doctors were still awaiting a resolution to the meeting, effectively sidelined the planned dialogue between the doctors and the Chief Minister, and significantly amplified the protests, with doctors at the protest site celebrating the arrests and demanding further action against those involved in the cover-up. The BJP, the main opposition party, wasted no time in capitalizing on the situation, with Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition, claiming that the Chief Minister's cancellation of the meeting was a direct result of her anxiety over the CBI's actions and the potential for further arrests in the case. The Trinamool Congress, however, defended the Chief Minister's actions, highlighting her willingness to engage with the protesting doctors and arguing that their insistence on live-streaming and recording was inappropriate given the sensitive nature of the case.
Source: CBI's Late-Night Move Caps High Drama Over Mamata Banerjee-Doctors Meeting