KOLKATA: Indian police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters marching in the eastern city of Kolkata on Tuesday to demand the resignation of a senior state minister following the gruesome rape and murder of a junior doctor.
The protesters, led by university students, broke through iron barricades set up on the route of their march to the West Bengal state secretariat, television footage showed, prompting a baton charge by police who had earlier declared the protest illegal.
The August 9 attack on the 31-year-old doctor has sparked outrage across the country, similar to the widespread protests that followed the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012, with activists saying women continue to suffer high levels of sexual violence despite tougher laws.
A volunteer police officer was arrested for the crime and the federal police took over the investigation.
In many parts of the country, junior doctors have refused to treat non-emergency patients since the incident at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and have launched protests demanding justice for the victim and greater security for women in hospitals.
India's Supreme Court has set up a task force on hospital safety and asked protesting doctors to return to work, but some have refused to budge, including in West Bengal, whose capital is Kolkata.
More than 5,000 police personnel were deployed in Kolkata and the neighbouring city of Howrah on Tuesday, a senior officer said, as protests led by some university students began demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Kunal Ghosh, a spokesman for Banerjee's ruling Trinamool Congress Party, blamed the police crackdown on “anarchy” created by workers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, the state's main opposition party, as well as groups affiliated with it.
The BJP has extended its support to the protesting students, while state leader Suvendu Adhikari told reporters that the Banerjee administration was trying to suppress the rape and murder incident, an allegation the state government has denied.
