Civic volunteer arrested for raping junior doctor.
Kolkata Police has arrested civic volunteer Sanjay Roy in connection with the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. On Friday night, the Kolkata Police formed a seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the rape and murder of the junior doctor. The SIT arrested Sanjay Roy, a civilian volunteer of the Kolkata Police. The police produced him before the court after arresting him. He is currently on 14-day police remand.
After this incident, junior doctors in Kolkata are continuously protesting and striking. They are demanding the removal of the principal of the medical college and justice. Along with the entire country, the politics of Bengal has also heated up regarding this matter. Doctors across the country will go on strike on Monday demanding justice and security for doctors.
But with this rape case, civic volunteers have also come into the limelight. Are people curious about who Civic Volunteers are and what their job is? What was the accused doing in the Civic Volunteer Hospital?
Also read this
Who are Citizen Volunteers?
According to the West Bengal Government website, the post of Civic Volunteer has been created to assist in police operations in West Bengal and Kolkata. Officially they are called Civic Volunteers, though many call them the ‘Civic Police’.
The force was originally created to assist the police in Bengal. However, there are many instances where citizen volunteers consider themselves equal to the police. Their appointment is on contract and monthly remuneration is paid by the police.
During the Left regime there was no police force like citizen volunteers. In 2008, the Municipal Department formed a force called ‘Green Police’ to control traffic in Kolkata. The main initiative to build this team was started in 2012 after Mamata Banerjee’s government came to power.
There are more than one lakh civic volunteers in Bengal.
According to the West Bengal government website, due to inadequate police personnel, a decision was taken in 2013 to recruit 40,000 police officers and 1.3 lakh ‘civic police volunteers’.
The website also states that 1,19,916 people have been recruited in this team. According to administration sources, the original idea behind the formation of the force was to recruit civilian volunteers on contract basis to assist the police. The contract was to be renewed every six months. Their primary responsibilities included traffic control and crowd management at fairs and festivals.
Who is accused civic volunteer Sanjay Roy?
Sanjay Roy joined the Disaster Management Group of the Kolkata Police as a civilian volunteer in 2019, but used his political connections to get transferred to the Welfare Cell of the Kolkata Police and posted himself at RG Kar Hospital.
Sanjay Roy was posted at the police post at RG Kar Hospital on several occasions, sometimes for long periods, which gave him easy access to all departments of the hospital.
Citizen volunteer caught with broken earphones
While investigating a case of rape and murder of a junior doctor, the police found broken earphones in a seminar room on the third floor of the emergency department building. Where the body of the junior doctor was found on Friday, from where he was identified.
CCTV footage showed Sanjay Roy in the emergency department at 4 am with a Bluetooth device hanging around his neck. When he came out of the building 40 minutes later, the earphones were nowhere to be seen. It was later discovered that the device was connected to his cellphone. On this basis, the police arrested her on charges of rape and murder. Later he also accepted the charge.
Even before this, questions were raised on civic volunteers
Before this, a controversy came up regarding the civic volunteer in the Anees Khan murder case as well. Then the state had to face questions in court. Justice Rajashekhar Mantha ordered the formulation of guidelines for civic volunteers. The State Police IG was instructed to prepare these guidelines and submit them to the court. The police had also presented guidelines in the court in this regard, but now again questions have been raised against the performance of the civic volunteers.
