Kolkata rape-murder case: Bengal CM Mamata offers to resign

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (September 12) offered to resign amid protests by junior doctors over the rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

"I apologise to the people of Bengal who expected an end to the RG Kar impasse today. They (junior doctors) came to Nabanna but did not sit for the meeting. I request them to go back to work," Banerjee said at a press conference in Kolkata.

"I am ready to resign for the sake of the people as, despite my best intentions and efforts in the last three days, the medics declined to hold talks," the chief minister said.

Earlier on Thursday, in a dramatic turn of events, agitating junior doctors refused to join the Bengal government’s proposal for talks in the presence of Banerjee so far to resolve the RG Kar hospital impasse after the state rejected their demand for live streaming of the meeting.

The protestors who reached the secretariat at around 5.25 pm, some 25 minutes past the scheduled time of commencement of the meeting, stayed put at the venue threshold for over an hour and were seen engaged in meetings even as a high-strung battle of nerves ensued between the two sides with both staying firm on their respective stands.

Senior police officials at the venue, including DGP Rajeev Kumar, ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar and even state chief secretary Manoj Pant, who were seen engaged in back-to-back discussions with the doctors’ delegation and other officials, failed to convince the unrelenting doctors who refused to budge.

All this while, Banerjee was reportedly waiting at the venue to take part in the meeting.