Fresh protests over rape and murder of Indian doctor see police use water cannons, tear gas on demonstrators

New Delhi — Thousands of angry students and other protesters marched through the streets of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal on Tuesday to demand justice for a doctor who was brutally raped and killed earlier this month at a city hospital.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters who were marching towards the state secretariat building to demand the resignation of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whom they accuse of mishandling the matter.

Indian television channels broadcast videos showing protesters scaling barricades on the Howrah Bridge as police used water cannons to stop them.

The body of a 31-year-old doctor was found on August 9 in a lecture hall at the government-run RG Kar Medical College Hospital in Kolkata, where she suffered multiple injuries. The doctor had gone to rest in the lecture hall during her night shift when she was attacked. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault and multiple injuries sustained before her death, suggesting that she resisted and may have been tortured before she was murdered.

Kolkata police arrested a volunteer force member on August 10 and charged him with rape and murder, but the brutality of the case sparked national outrage, with doctors across the country demanding safer workplaces and citizens demanding women’s safety in a country with a shameful rape record.

Doctors at government hospitals across India refused to work last week, turning away all but emergency patients as part of a national strike on rape and murder.

Kolkata police turned the city into a fortress ahead of Tuesday’s planned protest, barricading all roads leading to the state secretariat and deploying 6,000 men in riot gear. Police said they had not given permission for the protest march, and West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress party said it was an attempt by opposition parties to create unrest in the city.

Police clashed with protesters on Tuesday morning as some members of the crowd managed to scale the barricades, but the demonstrators were arrested before they could reach the state secretariat.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal said several students were injured in clashes with police on Tuesday and called for another 12-hour general strike in the state on Wednesday to protest the response.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the Kolkata rape and murder, subjected prime suspect Sanjay Roy to a polygraph test last week, the results of which were not yet released Tuesday. Many in the country are hoping the results will shed light on whether others may have been involved in the attack, as the victim’s father has suggested.

According to the most recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau, India reported an average of nearly 90 rapes per day in 2022. Experts believe the true number could be much higher, as many rapes go unreported due to stigma around sexual violence and lack of trust in police investigations. Conviction rates remain low, with many cases remaining bogged down for years in India’s overburdened criminal justice system.