Kolkata, Oct 8 (IANS): The junior doctors protesting against the rape and murder of their fellow lady colleague at R.G Kar Medical College & Hospital staged a sit-in-protest demonstration in front of a police station in Kolkata on Monday night after the cops attached with the police station seized items that were being brought to the venue at Esplanade in central Kolkata where seven junior doctors are in fast-unto-death agitation.

The tension started after two manually paddle-driven vehicles carrying some essential items like plastic chairs destined for the hunger-strike venue were stopped and seized in a place that comes under the jurisdiction of the Bowbazar Police Station in Central Kolkata.

The cops seized those items on the grounds that the path through which those plastic chairs were carried by those manually paddle-driven vehicles is not permitted for travelling by slow-moving vehicles under the Calcutta Hackney-Carriage Act of 1919.

There was an altercation between the junior doctors and the cops on this issue, following which the junior doctors started staging sit-in demonstrations in front of Bowbazar Police Station.

“Since the beginning, Kolkata Police has tried to stop our movements on the rape and murder issue. First, the junior doctors engaged in the hunger strike were prevented from raising bio-toilets near the hunger strike venue. Now they are creating unnecessary hurdles for carrying basic items to that hunger-strike venue,” said a representative of West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) spearheading the movement in rape and murder issue.

Meanwhile, the fast-unto-death agitation by seven junior doctors that started on Saturday evening has already crossed over 72 hours while the senior doctors have expressed solidarity towards them by participating in a time-bound fasting agitation.