Students of various medical colleges and members of the general public on Friday night took part in a torch procession in memory of the on-duty doctor who was raped and murdered inside R G Kar hospital on August 9 last year. The torch procession, organised at the call of West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front (WBJDF), started from College Street near the Calcutta University main campus to culminate five kilometres away at Shyambazar near R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. "We will hold a night-long vigil at Shyambazar to demand justice for 'Abhaya', who suffered the brutality in the intervening night of August 8 and 9 a year ago," said one of the students participating in the procession. The participants held placards calling for arrest and punishment of all those alleged to be involved in the gruesome crime that had led to protests across the country. Slogans of "we want justice" reverberated in the air as the torch rally proceeded. Many wore black headbands with "have not forgotten, will not forget" written on them, while some participants held the national flag in their hands. Protest meets and processions demanding justice for the victim were held at various places in and around Kolkata, including Netajinagar in the south to Sodepur in the northern outskirts of the city.
The body of the on-duty doctor was found in the seminar room of the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024. The WBJDF has also called a protest meeting on Saturday evening in front of R G Kar hospital in north Kolkata's Shyambazar area. They also called upon the general public to hold torch processions and vigil at their own localities across Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. The parents of the victim doctor, maintaining that only one person could not commit such a gruesome crime, are demanding that anyone else involved be identified and brought to book by the CBI, which is holding further investigation into alleged conspiracy angle in the crime.