Kolkata/IBNS: The parents of the RG Kar rape-murder victim alleged an assault by police during a mega protest march towards state secretariat Nabanna on a day the brutal crime was uncovered last year.

Speaking to the media, the victims' parents claimed they were assaulted by cops after they entered the Kolkata Police area.

The victim's mother claimed her shankha bangles were also broken. She was later hospitalised.

"The moment we crossed Sinthee More and entered the Kolkata area, police took note of our vehicle's number plate and circulated among themselves to stop us," said the victim's mother.

"I have been beaten up on the road. My shankha bangles have been broken. I have been hit on the forehead. I want to march to Nabanna demanding an answer for why my daughter was killed on duty," she added.

The cops have denied the charges brought against them by the victim's parents.

The 31-year-old post-graduate trainee doctor was brutally raped and murdered on the intervening night of August 8 and 9, 2024 at a seminar room while she was on duty.

Though civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy, who was hurriedly arrested by police after the incident came to light, has already been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court, protesters believe more are involved in the incident and they are yet to be nabbed.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was given the charge of the case by the Calcutta High Court, named Sanjoy as the only person behind the rape-murder in the chargesheet backing the state administration's claim.

The march that caused a collapse of the traffic on the weekend was heavily supported by members of the prime opposition party, BJP, spearheaded by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.

Anticipating a massive mob, police arranged huge barricades in the form of tall guardrails, containers to thwart the crowd's entry into the vicinity of Howrah, a neighbouring district of the capital city of Kolkata.

Adhikari and his colleagues with rakhis tied on their hands on the occasion of Hindu ceremony Raksha Bandhan poured in from various localities to culminate into the road leading up to Howrah to protest against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is off to Jhargram for administrative duties.

Adhikari, BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul and other party workers, who were carrying the national flag, camped at Park Street after they were stopped from marching ahead.

"Mamata Banerjee's police did this. They killed Abhaya (rape-murder victim) and now they have targeted her parents," said Adhikari and added, "Eighteen of our protesters have been admitted to hospital. One person's hand was broken. Several, including myself, have been injured."

"This is Mamata versus Bengal and its women," the BJP strongman, who later met the victim's mother in the hospital, added.

Reacting to the 'assault' claims, ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya said, "Suvendu Adhikari wanted this to happen so he could do politics. It's a march organised by BJP. I feel bad for the victim's parents for falling into the BJP's trap."

The Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed the march to be held in the city, which is already rocked by protests over the last one year on a number of issues.

The court passed the order in response to a plea filed by a Howrah businessman who sought a ban on the march that he claimed would cause business losses.

Professor and activist Miratun Nahar, who was also a part of the city-wide protests, directly held the Chief Minister responsible for the RG Kar incident.

"There is no existing government in the state in real sense, otherwise, she would not have been killed. She had to sacrifice her life for the ruling party supremo," Prof. Nahar, a critic of the TMC government, said.

The RG Kar rape-murder case not only shocked the nation and triggered spontaneous outrage but also unearthed alleged corruption of various forms existing in the medical college and hospital, which is located in North Kolkata.

The case also led to the unravelling of the corruption charges against erstwhile RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh levelled by the students.

Ghosh's posting to an equally important post at some other college by the government following protests against him over the rape-murder case had stirred row.

Later, Ghosh was arrested in the corruption as well as the rape-murder case. Though he was granted bail in the rape-murder case, the former principal is still in jail over the corruption.

Mamata, who is at the fag end of her tumultous third consecutive term in power, was at the receiving end of a fresh verbal onslaught in the evening when a march to the Chief Minister's residence Kalighat ensued.

The Kalighat march, which was however restricted to Hazra More precisely, was led by the mother of teenage girl Tamanna Khatun, who was killed in a crude bomb thrown by the ruling TMC members in Kaliganj during celebration of a bypoll victory on June 23, 2025.

Tamanna's mother, who demanded justice for both her daughter and RG Kar victim, blasted Mamata in her emotional yet fiery speech that moved the crowd to tears.

"I have no idea whether my girl will get justice or not. The culprits are still roaming free. Mamata Banerjee won't let me get justice. But I will continue to fight till the end. I have become completely alone after my daughter was killed," Tamanna's mother Sabina Yasmin, who had earlier refused compensation by TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, thundered.

Sabina's words were followed by slogans "Tamannar rokto hobena ko byartho (Tamanna will get justice)" or "Mamata-r kalo hath bhenge dao, gurie daao (crush the oppressor)".

(Photos by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)