Prohibitory Orders in Kolkata for 7 Days Following Protests Over Doctor’s Rape-Murder at RG-Kar Medical College and Hospital

The rape and murder of a trainee doctor has sparked nationwide strikes by the medical fraternity. The Commissioner of Police in Kolkata, Vineet Kumar Goyal, issued an order on Saturday prohibiting rallies, meetings, processions, dharnas, demonstrations, and unlawful assembly of five or more persons in a specified area of Kolkata. This order is enforced under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. The order prohibits any unlawful assembly of five or more persons, carrying of lathis, lethal or other dangerous weapons, or any act likely to cause a breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity within a specific area in the town of Kolkata for a period of seven days, from 18.08.2024 to 24.08.2024, or until further notice.

The order was imposed based on credible inputs and information indicating potential violent demonstrations, rallies, and meetings that may lead to a breach of peace, disturbance of public tranquillity, as well as obstruction to medical and lawfully employed persons in the area. The incident that led to these measures occurred on 9 August, when a postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata. This has prompted nationwide strikes by the medical fraternity. On a subsequent day, the protest ground and the hospital campus at RG Kar were vandalised by a mob, leading to the dispersal of the crowd by security personnel.

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