Indian doctors protest against rape and murder of medic, urge security measures

KOLKATA — Hospital services were disrupted in several Indian cities on Tuesday after a doctors' protest spread nationwide following the rape and murder of a trainee medic in the city of Kolkata, authorities and media reports said.

Thousands of doctors marched on Monday in Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal, and other parts of the state, denouncing the killing at a government-run hospital and demanding justice for the victim and better security measures.

The 31-year-old doctor was found dead on Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime.

Protests spread on Tuesday, with more than 8,000 government doctors in the western state of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, halting work in all hospital departments except emergency services, media reports said.

In the capital New Delhi, junior doctors wearing white coats held posters that read, "Doctors are not punching bags", as they sat in protest outside a large government hospital, Reuters TV images showed.

Similar protests in cities such as Lucknow, the capital of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, and in the western state of Goa hit some hospital services, reports said.

"Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workloads and violence at the workplace are the reality," the Indian Medical Association, or IMA, the biggest grouping of doctors in the country, told Health Minister J P Nadda in a letter released to the media before they met him for talks on Tuesday.

Probe demanded

IMA General Secretary Anil Kumar J Nayak told the ANI news agency that his group had urged Nadda to step up security at medical facilities.

The health ministry did not immediately comment.

The highest court in West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday ordered that the country's premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, should probe the crime, officials said.

"Even after five days, there have been no significant conclusions which should have happened by now. Therefore, we are justified that there is every possibility that evidence will be destroyed. We deem it appropriate that the case be transferred to the CBI with immediate effect," the high court said in its order.

The court asked the West Bengal police to hand over all documents to the CBI immediately.

The court issued the order while hearing a bunch of petitions over the matter, including one from the victim's parents demanding an investigation by an independent body to ensure that evidence is not tampered with.

Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said police in Kolkata must complete their probe by Sunday, failing which the state government would recommend a CBI inquiry.

Agencies - Xinhua