Commissioner of Kolkata Police Vineet Kumar Goyal on Friday strongly condemned social media speculation surrounding the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital and admitted to an “assessment failure” on the part of the police regarding the mob violence that broke out on the hospital premises in the early hours of Thursday (August 15, 2024).
A violent mob broke down police barricades vandalised the premises of the hospital with sticks and rods, and destroyed ventilators, medical equipment, hospital beds, furniture etc. on Thursday. This incident happened at a time when thousands of people had gathered in over 50 locations in the city as part of the ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches to demand justice for the victim and better safety for women.
So far, 25 people have been arrested in connection to the attack.
“It was a leaderless crowd, anticipating and assessing how many people would gather in various places across the city was difficult. We had to spread ourselves thin, there were many women so we had to be restrained in our response,” Mr. Goyal said. “We had sufficient deployment on that day. Despite that, the barricade was breached and the people vandalised the place,” he added.
He said that his forces were outnumbered in this situation. “There were far too many people for the small number of force which was there to prevent the breach of law and order,” he explained.
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“This entire protest was supposed to be a peaceful protest. There was no such intelligence… that there was likely to be vandalism,” he added.
The mob comprised small disjointed groups of individuals hailing from nearby areas like Nager Bazar and Dum Dum, and they walked to hospital that night, a senior Kolkata Police official said.
“Some of the miscreants admitted during interrogation that they vandalised out of impulse and anger,” the official said. “They were further motivated by a mob mentality where they joined in on what they saw happening.”
Social media speculations
Mr. Goyal also requested people to refrain from sharing unverified information and rumours online, about the rape and murder of the trainee doctor.
“Far too many rumours are floating, which have no basis… evidence has to be scientific in nature,” he said. He added that based on the rumours, many “so-called experts” had provoked the public to make assumptions about the nature of the crime and the initial investigations done by the Kolkata Police.
The Police Commissioner also pointed out the various pieces of misinformation circulating on social media, particularly about how the victim’s body was found in the hospital on August 9, how the parents were informed, and the initial post-mortem. “I don’t know from where people are getting such information. It is being circulated in all forms across social media and it is creating confusion among the people,” he said.
He also asked people to have faith in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had taken over the probe into the rape and murder case.
“The CBI can find out if there were any loopholes on our part or any deliberate evidence destruction that our team might have done… please have faith in the agency that is investigating,” Mr. Goyal said.
Notices to users
Meanwhile, the social media handles of Kolkata Police and its Cyber Crime branch have posted notices to social media users in the comments section of their posts about the case. This includes journalists, doctors, as well as medical students who had shared certain kinds of content about the case.
In response to an X post made by a journalist about the mob violence at the hospital on August 15, the Kolkata Police on Thursday posted, “Don’t spread unverified news. We will spread legal action.”
One medical student based in Kolkata took to social media and claimed that around three to four Kolkata Police personnel visited her house and asked her to delete an unverified post she made about a student of Burdwan University. “Please delete the post and don’t further post information without verifying and report to Town thana tomorrow,” the social media user quoted the police personnel in her social media post on Friday.
The same social media user had also posted a public apology on her profile, saying that she was forwarding information that was reaching her. “I publicly apologise if I have angered/misled anyone with any information I have shared,” she wrote.
The Cyber Crime branch of Kolkata Police also posted images of notices they issued to social media users in the comments section of their posts. The notices read, “It has been observed that you are using social media for posting offensive, malicious and inciting post… You are hereby directed to delete the above-mentioned post and also refrain from such acts failing which you will be liable for strict penal action under relevant provision of law.”
A few days ago, 15 influencers were summoned by Kolkata Police for posting about the rape and murder on social media.
