KOLKATA: Indian authorities in Kolkata have fired the city’s police chief and top health ministry officials after furious protests over the brutal rape and murder of a doctor.
The discovery of the bloodied body of the 31-year-old doctor at a state-run hospital in the eastern metropolis on August 9 has sparked nationwide outrage over the chronic issue of violence against women.
The killing has sparked protests across India and repeated strikes by doctors demanding safer conditions for women.
While many protests and strikes have since calmed down in the rest of India, regular demonstrations continue in Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the removal of Kolkata’s police commissioner and two health department officials after a meeting with doctors late on Monday.
“We have agreed to remove the director of health services and the director of medical colleges,” Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.
“Vineet Goyal, Kolkata police commissioner, will also be removed, as demanded by junior doctors.”
He also urged doctors to return to work, saying emergency operations are being affected by their strike.
However, Aniket Mahato, a spokesman for the West Bengal Young Doctors Front protest group, said they would not stop the protests until investigations into the case were completed.
A man has been taken into custody over the killing, but the West Bengal state government has faced public criticism for its handling of the investigation.
“We have reached an agreement on some points, but the disagreement remains,” Mahato said AFP.
Thousands of protesters marched through the city’s streets on Monday, chanting slogans and demanding justice for the victim.
India’s Supreme Court last month ordered a national task force to consider how to strengthen the safety of health care workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation”.
The horrific nature of the attack has drawn comparisons to the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.
It became a major political issue and was seen as a factor in the subsequent electoral success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP is the ruling party at the national level, but in West Bengal, the state government is led by the All India Trinamool Congress.
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