The Kolkata Police on Sunday arrested a college student for allegedly calling for the assassination of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, NDTV reported.
The second-year commerce student, Kirti Sharma, allegedly uploaded a story on social media platform Instagram calling for Banerjee to be killed like former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was.
Sharma posted the story amid protests against the West Bengal government in light of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9, according to the police.
The police said that a complaint was filed against a person with the Instagram username “kirtisocial” at the city’s Taltala police station. The police also alleged that Sharma disclosed the identity and photo of the trainee doctor who was raped and murdered.
“At the same time, the accused person also shared two stories against the CM that contained offensive comments and life threats to her,” PTI quoted an unidentified police officer as saying. “Those were very much provocative in nature and might have created social unrest and promoted hatred among communities.”
Won’t save you if there is public anger, TMC MP warns doctors
Amid a strike by resident doctors seeking justice in the rape and murder case, Trinamool Congress MP Arup Chakraborty said that the protestors should not expect to be protected by the state if citizens express anger against them, The Indian Express reported.
“In the name of the movement, you may go home or go about with your boyfriend,” Chakraborty said on Sunday at a rally in Bankura. “If a patient dies because of your strike and public anger falls on you, we will not save you.”
The MP later defended his statement saying: “In the name of a strike, if they [doctors] go out and people don’t get treatment, naturally their anger will fall on them. We can’t save them.”
Resident doctors in many parts of the country have been on strike since August 13, demanding justice for the trainee doctor as well as enhanced legal safeguards for health workers. Out patient department services have been hit and elective surgeries have been postponed in some regions due to the strike.
At the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a group of miscreants disrupted the protest in the early hours of Thursday. The miscreants attacked demonstrators, including doctors, and also damaged police cars.
The police have arrested 25 persons in connection with the vandalism so far.
Also read:
- What a brutal crime in a Kolkata hospital reveals about the dangers women doctors face in India
- Unsafe by design: Bad infrastructure keeps women watching their backs – fixing this would be a start
- Rape, murder of Kolkata doctor highlight failure of workplace safety provisions for women
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