Kolkata rape and murder: Citizens attack, abuse policemen in disturbing trend

"This attack on policemen should not be seen as a stray case. Back-to-back incidents of assault and intimidation have taken place in Kolkata after the August 9 rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor inside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital," the officer, who requested anonymity, added.

Police officers from various police stations across Kolkata told HT that policemen working on the streets either alone or with a handful of colleagues seem to have become targets of the public outrage that erupted after Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer working with the Kolkata police, was arrested as prime suspect in the RG Kar Hospital incident.

"At hundreds of mass protests organised after the crime, slogans were raised against the police force. Ironically, it was we who were deployed to ensure the safety of women taking part in those night-long rallies," an assistant police commissioner said.

"A negative impact of those speeches and slogans against the police force is visible. At least a dozen policemen were assaulted during the August 27 BJP-backed rally that witnessed large-scale violence. One of them, traffic sergeant Debasish Chakraborty, suffered a severe injury in the left eye," he said.

"Several incidents have taken place before and after August 27," a second assistant commissioner said. "Traffic sergeant Hiranmay Ghosh was roughed up by a mob after a road accident in the crowded Rajabazar area on the afternoon of August 14. He was literally hounded for almost 100 metres. Sudip Mukherjee, an assistant sub-inspector, suffered head injuries when he was assaulted by some members of the transgender community in the Burtolla area on the night of September 7. He was trying to stop a quarrel between two groups. Two of the accused were arrested," the assistant commissioner added. Videos of the Rajabazar incident went viral on social media.

During the month-long protest, citizens and agitating junior doctors from RG Kar Hospital constantly demanded the removal of police commissioner Vineet Goyal, accusing him of shielding the culprits. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, too, was not spared by the mass protests since she is in charge of home and health departments.

On September 14, Tala police station's officer-in-charge, Abhijit Mondal was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting the probe on court orders, alongside Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, on suspicion of destroying evidence. This fueled the mass outrage against the police force, feel many officers.

"A few days ago, one of my colleagues went to drop his son at a well-known south Kolkata school while going to work. Parents of some children accosted him, asking how he could use a government motorcycle for personal use. This hatred apparently stemmed from media reports which said Sanjay Roy, the civic volunteer accused in the RG Kar Hospital case, was using a police motorcycle although he was not entitled to have one," a police inspector said.

On September 16, while meeting the junior doctors in a bid to end their strike, the chief minister promised to replace Goyal.

Manoj Kumar Verma, who took over as the new police commissioner, held a meeting with divisional deputy commissioners and senior IPS officers at the Lalbazar police headquarters on Wednesday evening. Verma started visiting all police stations under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata police on Thursday morning,

"We will take strong action as per law against people who assault policemen, Not one will be spared. The arrests will send out a message. Nobody has the right to assault another person, whether the latter is a policeman or not," a senior IPS officer from the police headquarters said.

Udayan Bandopadhyay, a professor of political science, said the rage shown by citizens towards policemen is a fallout of recent events but rooted in the state’s history of violence. “We saw the police being provoked at some recent political rallies. Those speeches are interpreted by citizens in their own ways. These assaults are a fallout of political articulations,” he said, adding: “Secondly, a large section of people doesn't have much faith in the police because of Bengal's history. The trend started during the Naxalite movement in the 70s. The current government has somehow failed to project a positive image of the police force."

A spokesperson of the opposition in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the party doesn’t support the trend where policemen were being targetted.

"A section of top police officers might be corrupt but those at the ground level are helpless because they only carry out orders. These people should not be targeted. BJP never supports this," Bengal BJP's chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.