Kolkata: After the Calcutta High Court questioned the police’s involvement in the ransacking of the state-run RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, Vineet Kumar Goyal, the city’s commissioner of police, acknowledged shortcomings in his force a few hours later.
Vineet Kumar Goyal claims that the police were unprepared for the peaceful agitation to become violent at any time.
“That was our mistake. After the Deputy Commissioner (North) got injured after being hit on his head, our men got disoriented and took time to recover. Many police personnel also got injured. If you want to call it our failure, you can do that,” the Police Commissioner said.
The Calcutta High Court questioned the police’s intelligence failure to foresee the unrest earlier in the day.
According to observers, the Police Commissioner’s statement amounted to a tacit acknowledgement of the observations made on this count by the Calcutta High Court.
His remarks on Friday, however, were in direct opposition to what he had declared the night before when he arrived at RG Kar over an hour after the ransacking had occurred. He had blamed a “malicious media campaign” for the vandalism at the RG Kar Medical College on Wednesday night.
“This is the impact of continuous and negative media campaigns that have shown the city police in a bad light. In addition, there have been social media campaigns. Now the responsibility of the investigation of the case is with the CBI. Let them investigate the matter,” an angry Goyal said Wednesday night.
On Friday afternoon, however, he appealed to all to have faith in the CBI probe.
“You might not have faith in us. At least have faith in them. I am sure they will crack the case based on evidence. My only request to people is not to spread rumours,” the Police Commissioner said.
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–IANS
