After Gaighata encounter, RG Kar doctor’s MLA mother seeks same fate for daughter’s killers
Kolkata: Ratna Debnath, the mother of the RG Kar rape and murder victim, on Tuesday demanded similar treatment for those accused in her daughter’s case as meted out to Prahlad Das, the accused in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in Gaighata in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday morning, Debnath, who is currently the BJP legislator from Panihati Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas, said the fate of the accused in her daughter’s case would have been similar to that of Prahlad Das had the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government not been in power when the crime took place in August 2024.
“I want the accused in my daughter’s case to receive similar treatment as happened in Gaighata. The previous state government always tried to save those accused in rape and rape-murder cases. The current state government is paving the way for justice. What is the use of keeping those who commit such heinous acts alive? Encounters are the right thing for them. I want this to happen to my daughter’s perpetrators. The more this happens, the more they will be afraid,” Debnath said.
The body of Debnath’s daughter, a junior doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, was recovered from a seminar room on the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024. Investigations established that she had been raped and murdered.
Sanjay Roy, a former civic volunteer attached to the Kolkata Police, was convicted in the case and is currently serving a life sentence.
Meanwhile, Das, accused of raping and murdering a minor girl in Gaighata last week, was killed in an encounter with the police in the early hours of Tuesday.
The state police are yet to issue an official statement on the incident. However, sources familiar with the developments said Das was taken to the crime scene in the early hours of Tuesday for reconstruction of the incident following his arrest.
According to the sources, Das suddenly snatched the firearm of a police personnel escorting him and opened fire at the policemen. The escorting team retaliated, leaving the accused seriously injured.
He was subsequently taken to a nearby state-run hospital, where doctors declared him dead.