"Adding Salt To...": Veep's Fresh Fire At Kapil Sibal Over Kolkata Horror

Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar also criticised the "selective silence" of NGOs on the rape-murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata

The rape and murder of a doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata had shamed humanity and "some stray voices" are aggravating the pain, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar said today, launching a fresh attack on Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal.

Earlier, the Vice-President said at a public event that someone holding a position in the Supreme Court bar and also a member of Parliament had said the Kolkata incident was a "symptomatic malaise" and suggested that such incidents are commonplace. The remark was aimed at Mr Sibal, the Supreme Court Bar Association president who is also representing the Mamata Banerjee government in the sensitive rape-murder case. Mr Sibal purportedly used the expression in a resolution by the Supreme Court Bar Association, of which he is the president.

Addressing an event at AIIMS Rishikesh today, the Vice-President said incidents like the one in Kolkata put the entire civilisation to shame. "When humanity has been shamed, there are some stray voices, voices that cause concern. They only aggravate our excruciating pain. To put it mildly they are adding salt to our injured conscience. What do they say, 'it is a symptomatic malaise, a frequent incident'. When it comes from someone who is the Member of Parliament, a senior advocate, then the culpability is of extreme degree," he said.