An alleged video of the Indian female trainee doctor who was raped and killed at a hospital in Kolkata a few days ago has been circulating on social media. The video shows signs of brutal torture on the victim’s neck. Although the victim appears to be crying in pain, the audio in the video is unclear.
The doctor, identified as Mometa, has become a symbol in the fight against violence against women in India. Poems have been composed in her honor, including one in Urdu and Hindi, which reflects the victim’s imagined plea: “I wish I could be a boy, then all this cruelty would not have happened to me.”
The bloodied body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was discovered in the seminar hall of the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. According to media reports, the victim had been taking a nap after a 36-hour shift when she was attacked by nearly 10 men. Her father found her body semi-naked with her pelvis broken, her legs twisted at a 90-degree angle in the opposite direction, and her eyes bleeding. There were 120 marks of injury on her body. The hospital management initially claimed that the victim had committed suicide and delayed handing over the body to her parents for three hours.
The incident occurred on August 9, and protests have since erupted across various cities in India, with doctors also joining the demonstrations.
Thousands of people marched through Indian cities on Friday to demand justice for the trainee doctor and call for improved security at medical campuses and hospitals. Demonstrators held signs demanding accountability for the woman’s rape and murder as they gathered near Parliament in New Delhi. Similar protests took place in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state where the killing occurred, as well as in Mumbai and Hyderabad.
