Kolkata:
A differently-abled teenager has allegedly been raped by a junior doctor at a government hospital in West Bengal's Bankura district, about 150 kms from Kolkata. An FIR has been registered and the girl, who is hearing and speech impaired, is being moved to Kolkata for medical tests.
The clothes of the victim and the bedsheets have also been sent for examination. Hospital officials say that the family has mistakenly accused the doctor in question of rape. They say he was examining the victim. Her mother, however, says the 19-year-old girl was found naked and unconscious in the Bankura Sammilani Medical College where she was admitted for chest pains on Monday night.
"They asked me to wait outside and they took her inside. For two hours, they were inside," she explained. "Then I went inside and saw that her clothes were not on her and she was crying. Then I shouted at the doctor, asked him is this how you do treatment?" She added, "She told me everything using sign language."
The hospital's Superintendent, Panchanan Kundu, said a three-member committee has been set up to investigate. "We have received a complaint in this regard. It is learnt that the said doctor examined the patient without being accompanied either by a female hospital staff or a female attendant of the patient. The probe team will look into the allegations," he said.
"They (patients) come here for treatment. We paid for it with my sister's shame," said her brother.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has blamed two recent rape cases in her state as political conspiracies. Over the weekend, a woman was allegedly pushed out of a train and gang-raped. Ms Banerjee described that incident as one made up by the opposition Left in the state. She said the alleged victim's husband was a CPM supporter; but he has been dead for several years. Before that, a woman was raped in a car by men she met at a nightclub on Kolkata's famous Park Street. Even as the police confirmed that the woman had been sexually assaulted, Ms Banerjee had said the incident was fabricated to malign her government.