Amid massive protests over a Kolkata doctor's rape-murder, three purported audio recordings of phone calls, allegedly made by RG Kar Medical College authorities on August 9 victim's parents hit the public domain on Thursday. They have sparked a fresh controversy over 'insensitivity' and 'disinformation' of the institute's management in breaking bad news.
The changes in statements on the status of the victim made by an official in those phone calls, raise questions on whether the hospital was initially trying to cover up the ghastly crime. DNA can't independently verify the authenticity of phone calls.
The caller, a woman, identified herself as the assistant superintendent of the hospital. She reportedly dialed the parents of the victim from the same number thrice within a span of around 30 minutes asking for their urgent presence at the facility.
First Phone call
"I am calling from RG Kar Hospital. Can you come over immediately?" the caller could be heard telling the victim's father when he picked up his phone the first time around 10.53 that morning. The father responded, "Why? What has happened?" To this, the caller replied, "Your daughter has fallen a little ill. We are admitting her in the hospital. Can you come down quickly?"
When the parent insisted on more details, the caller was heard saying, "Those details only doctors can provide. We only managed to find your number and call you. Please come down quickly. The patient has been admitted after falling ill. The rest, the doctors will brief you after you arrive."
Second phone call
The second phone call arrived some five minutes later. It was perceptively from the same caller and she was heard saying, "Her condition is critical, very critical. Please come over as soon as you can." To a desperate appeal from the father asking what happened to his daughter, the voice at the other end repeated, "Only doctors can say that.
You please come over."
When the father asked her to reveal her identity, the caller said, "I am the assistant superintendent. I am not a doctor. We have brought your daughter to the emergency ward. You please come over and contact us."
Third phone call
The third and final call was the one which pronounced the death of the victim, albeit with a twist. "Yes, please listen… we were repeatedly telling you before… your daughter… may have… died by suicide… or, she may have passed away. The police are here. All of us from the hospital are here. We are calling you to ask you to come down quickly," the apparently same voice from the first two calls announced in disjointed sentences. The final call lasted for 28 seconds.
The clear changes in the hospital's statement, from the victim "falling a little ill" to "very critical and admitted in emergency ward" to, finally, "may have died by suicide" have left the investigators to question whether "a carefully planned suicide plot was being hatched by the hospital authorities and police to cover up the crime", an official said.
(With inputs from PTI)
