“Don’t worry about our daughters…” Kolkata Police hits back at Social media trolls targeting their families

In eye of public anger, scrutiny and social media uproar, Kolkata Police senior officers broke their silence on Thursday through a social media campaign urging the critics not to worry about their family as they too are “dealing with everyday struggles like others”. In the wake of the brutal rape and murder of the RG Kar doctor, several allegations have been levelled against the Kolkata Police over the way the issue was handled till the matter was handed over to the CBI. “Allegations, either relying on fake information and theories pumped in with political bend of mind, stand debunked today but sadly while their hatred was towards police, families of police forces were not spared”, said a senior Kolkata Police officer.

In the past fortnight, since the crime, protesters have come up with several slogans while seeking justice. One such slogan in Bengali was - “police tumi chinta koro, Tomar meye o, hochhe boro” meaning Police you start worrying, your daughter is also growing up… Posters reading the same slogan had been used to dare police during rallies including the law violation program on Tuesday that witnessed wide scale violence leaving at least 15 officers grievously injured. On Thursday evening, several senior Kolkata police officers had put out a post on social media to counter the narrative. “Police er meyer chinta charo, se lorai korei hochhe boro” when translated in English mean- “Don’t worry about the daughters of Police, they too are growing up through struggles ”, read the social media post of police officers. In a clear departure from their usual attitude of being reticent towards social media narratives, Kolkata Police officers have shared the same post on their social handles, as a counter response. Few of their posts had an addition line reading “your son is also growing up, is he entirely the responsibility of the police?”

“We general don’t react to social media posts, we let them be. But this time they have tried hitting out at our daughters and families. I too have a daughter and the RG Kar incident has equally shaken us. My daughter is just nine years old, you think she won’t ask me questions tomorrow if we fail our girls in the society. The pain and the anger of this brutal rape is personal to one and all, including us. But the protesters thought it is easy to hurt police through their families. That is not the right approach. My daughter too will fight her own battles, it is like you are cursing a poor girl for being my daughter or daughter of Police”, said a police officer, unwilling to be identified.

Several Kolkata police officers have changed their social media display pictures to the photo of sergeant Debasish Chakraborty who was badly hurt during Tuesday’s law violation program undertaken by ‘Paschim Banga Chatra Samaj’. Chakraborty has undergone two surgeries and feared to lose his left eye sight. On Tuesday, he had plans to celebrate his son’s fifth birthday. An officer with the Cyber Cell of East Division was posted at Furlong gate on the protest day when a protesters had hurled a brick at him, rupturing his left eye. “A lot of people say a lot of things about police, but our husbands take a lot of risk and work. He is also a human being. He too has a family. We are all humans and it hurts us,” said Debarati Chakraborty, his wife.

Two people responsible for hurling the brick at him, have been arrested. Senior police officers fear the moral of the force could be affected due to the social media diatribes inviting distrust towards the uniform. “We are always at the receiving end. Protesters are taking out rallies, raising slogans against us but we are walking along with them ensuring their security. That is our job. When there are festivals, we sacrifice our personal lives and be on the streets so that revellers are safe. If Debasish loses his eye, whose fault is it and did he deserve this? Do we deserve this hatred? Kolkata Police arrested the main accused with 12 hours and the case is with CBI, has CBI said anything against us but public anger is engineered against police”, said another officer, angry with the social media narrative. “What we are doing now is not any PR stunt to resurrect our image, rather this is our right to stand up for ourselves”, he added.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday has issued a notice to Kolkata Police seeking an explanation on the alleged police excesses on the protestors participating in the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ on Tuesday. While the ‘Chatra Samaj’ claimed themselves to be apolitical a body, but BJP had openly extended support to them. “We have audio clips, exchanges between protesters and organisers indicating a sinister plan to stoke trouble during the Nabanna rally”, claimed Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General of Police, South Bengal.

Meanwhile rape threats have come for DC Central Indira Mukherjee after she had addressed two press conferences recently debunking several fake theories. On a YouTube video pertaining to RG Kar incident, a YouTube handle had commented “similar treatment like RG Kar will be meted out to Indira Mukherjee”.​