It was absolute failure of state machinery: Cal HC on vandalism at RG Kar hospital

The Calcutta High Court on Friday, 16 August observed that mob violence at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was an absolute failure of state machinery in West Bengal.

The court directed the police and the hospital authority to file affidavits on the incident.

A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said it was hard to believe that the police intelligence did not have information about the gathering of 7,000 people at the health facility when the state's lawyer told the court that a mob of such number had assembled at the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, 15 August.

The court directed the police and the administrator of the hospital to file two separate affidavits narrating the true state of affairs and all connected matters on the next hearing date on 21 August.

The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, said the police should place on record the entire sequence of events that led to the vandalism in the hospital.

The investigating team of CBI was also directed by the court to file an interim report about the progress of its investigation into the alleged rape and murder of the woman doctor in the seminar hall of the hospital on 9 August, which led to a ceasework by junior doctors in government hospitals in the state.