Police have fired tear gas and water cannon, and used batons to break up protests over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

Protesting university students led the crowds in breaking through barricades set up by security forces to demand the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state’s top elected official, for her handling of the case.

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The August 9 rape and murder of the 31-year-old trainee medic while she was on duty at Kolkata’s state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital caused outrage and protests across India, shedding light on the pervasiveness of sexual violence in the country.

Some of the protesters demanding Banerjee’s resignation were from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party to the chief minister’s Trinamool Congress party in the state.

Police had banned the BJP’s rally in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, deeming it illegal and blocking roads. Some schools and workplaces had given people the day off, in anticipation of the protests blocking traffic, local media reported.

Four student activists were arrested ahead of the rally, police said, accusing them of trying to orchestrate large-scale violence.

Namita Ghosh, a college student who attended the protest, told the AFP news agency that the crowd was demonstrating “peacefully” before the police chased them with batons.

Some 5,000 police officers were deployed in Kolkata and the neighbouring city of Howrah, a senior officer said.

Kunal Ghosh, a spokesman for the Trinamool Congress party, blamed the police crackdown on “lawlessness” created by BJP workers.

The BJP is supporting the protesting students. Senior state leader Suvendu Adhikari has said that Banerjee’s administration is trying to suppress the young doctor’s murder, a charge the state government has denied.

Police fire tear gas to disperse protests in Kolkata which have continued despite India’s top court setting up a national task force of doctors to make recommendations about workplace safety for healthcare workers [Bikas Das/AP]

One police volunteer has been arrested for the crime, but the doctor’s family has alleged that it was a case of gang rape and more men were involved. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault.

Protests have rocked Kolkata, as well as cities across the country, demanding justice and a swift investigation, mirroring similar widespread demonstrations after the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi.

Activists say women continue to face high levels of sexual violence despite tougher laws enacted since the 2012 attack, which spurred politicians to order harsher penalties for such crimes and set up fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. The government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

In 2022, the latest year for which records are available, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape – a 20 percent jump from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

Doctors in several cities launched strikes over the crime that cut off nonessential services, although medical professionals have since returned to work.

Last week, India’s Supreme Court created a safety task force to make recommendations on the safety of healthcare workers.