The top official for the Kolkata Police stated on Friday that the most recent audio recordings demonstrate that the police “never said that it was a suicide”. The officer was speaking of the 31-year-old RG Kar Medical College and Hospital trainee doctor who was raped and killed.
“We heard some audio clips that were rolled by many channels…No such comments have been made by Kolkata Police. We never said that it was a suicide,” Indira Mukherjee, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Central Division, said.
Mukherjee’s remark followed the Thursday social media leak of an audio clip allegedly showing the first three talks between the trainee doctor’s parents and employees of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The family and the hospital’s assistant superintendent allegedly spoke over the phone.
News agency was unable to independently confirm that the widely shared audio tape was legitimate. It did, however, align with what the late doctor’s parents had previously stated on getting the first information from a lady posing as the hospital’s assistant superintendent, according to the news agency.
The victim’s parents were reportedly called three times in around thirty minutes by a lady who claimed to be the hospital’s assistant superintendent but would not give her name. Each time, the caller asked for the victim’s parents’ immediate arrival at the institution.
The news agency transcribed the Bangla conversation as follows:
“RG Kar Hospital is where I’m calling from. Could you please come over right now?” When the victim’s father answered his phone for the first time that morning, at approximately 10.53, the caller could be heard telling him.
The father responded, “Why? What has happened?” To this, the caller replied, “Your daughter has fallen a little ill. We are admitting her in the hospital. Can you come down quickly?”
When the parent insisted on more details, the caller was heard saying, “Those details only doctors can provide. We only managed to find your number and call you. Please come down quickly. The patient has been admitted after falling ill. The rest, the doctors will brief you after you arrive.”
The worried mother of the victim could be heard asking from the background, “Is she running a fever?”
“Come over quickly,” was the caller’s reply.
“Is her condition very serious?” the father’s voice was heard asking. “Yes, she is very serious. Come quickly,” was the response from the other end.
The minute and eleven seconds of the call were spent.
Five minutes or so later, the second phone call—which lasted for roughly 46 seconds—arrived. The same caller exhibited perceptiveness and was heard to state, “Her condition is critical, very critical.” Would you kindly visit as soon as you can?”
The speaker on the other end responded, “Only doctors can say that,” in response to a frantic plea from the father asking what had happened to his daughter. Would you kindly come over?”
“I am the assistant superintendent,” the caller responded in response to the father’s request for her name. I’m not a medical professional. Your daughter has been taken to the emergency room by us. Please stop by and get in touch with us.”
“But what could have happened to her? She was on duty,” a panic-stricken mother’s voice could be heard in the background.
“You come over quickly, as soon as you can,” was the reply.
The third and final call was the one which pronounced the death of the victim, albeit with a twist.
“Yes, please listen… we were repeatedly telling you before… your daughter… may have… died by suicide… or, she may have passed away. The police are here. All of us from the hospital are here. We are calling you to ask you to come down quickly,” the apparently same voice from the first two calls announced in disjointed sentences.
The final call lasted for 28 seconds.
The clear changes in the hospital’s statement, from the victim “falling a little ill” to “very critical and admitted in emergency ward” to, finally, “may have died by suicide” have left the investigators to question whether “a carefully planned suicide plot was being hatched by the hospital authorities and police to cover up the crime”, an official told news agency.
