Droupadi Murmu, Amit Shah Urged To Revoke President’s Medal Bestowed On Kolkata CP Vineet Goyal

Kolkata: The role of Kolkata Police, post the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, has come under severe scrutiny.

Many are of the view that the men in uniform who are the guardians of citizens’ safety wanted to cover up a horrific crime to protect some influential people.

The demand for resignation of Vineet Goyal, Kolkata’s Commissioner of Police (CP), has grown louder by the day.

In a hugely symbolic gesture, a delegation of protesting junior doctors met the CP two days ago and presented him the model of a human ‘spine’ besides handing over a memorandum asking him to step down from his post.

Opposition parties and thousands of people who are taking to the streets every day have also been calling for the resignation of Goyal, who put up a defiant front in the initial stage post the crime and has even said that police have done a good job.

Even the victims’ parents and other family members have expressed their displeasure about the police’s behaviour and actions time and again.

On Thursday, BJP leader and leader of Opposition in West Bengal Legislative Assembly Suvendu Adhikari wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, urging them to withdraw/forfeit the President’s Police Medal and Police Medal conferred on Goyal for ‘deplorable and shameful conduct’ during the course of investigations.

“I have written a letter to the President of India Droupadi Murmu Ji requesting her to withdraw/forfeit the prestigious President’s Police Medal and Police Medal conferred upon Vineet Goyal; IPS, (West Bengal: RR – 1994), presently Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, in connection with his reprehensible, deplorable and shameful conduct during the course of investigations into the rape and murder of the Resident Doctor of RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata,” Adhikari posted on X along with a copy of his letter.

Adhikari alleged that Goyal’s complicity in the destruction of material evidence and deliberate inaction during the vandalism at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital on the night of August 14 has been well documented in the media.

“His brazen attempts to sabotage the investigations into what is possibly the most heinous and sensitive crime in the country today to pander to the whims of the political executive of the state, with an intent to camouflage the financial and moral racket running in the health sector in West Bengal, makes him unworthy of retaining such awards,” Adhikari claimed.

The Commissioner’s actions have tarnished the “redoubtable reputation of the Kolkata Police, built assiduously over 168 years, and brought shame to the West Bengal Police”, Adhikari claimed.

“His activities carried out with the intention of shielding certain influential individuals has further aggravated the already precarious Law & Order situation in West Bengal. He has brought great shame to the state and to the nation and the state is on the boil with the civil society perceiving him as embodiment of all that is wrong in the state of West Bengal,” Adhikari added.

Adhikari also urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to intervene in this regard.

“I have also written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah Ji, requesting him to intervene in this regard and also to kindly censure the State Govt of WB for failing to take appropriate steps in terms of the notification issued vide memo no. 11026/02/2017-PMA dated May 29, 2017 of the Police Division-I, wherein the State Governments were directed that any incident of non-adherence to the guidelines related to withdrawal/forfeiture of President’s Police Medal and Police Medal would be considered as a serious lapse,” Adhikari said.