There was more fuel to the leaping flames of protests against the rape and murder of a lady doctor of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with the father of the victim alleging that Kolkata Police had tried to stuff his mouth with cash to keep it shut.

In what could embarrass the powers that be more than ever before the father of the victim doctor told a rally of protesting doctors how a senior IPS officer drew him aside and offered him a packet which he refused.

"It was on the evening of my daughter's death … her body was kept inside her room … and we the old parents were sitting on the sofa … blank … when a Deputy Commissioner of Police drew me aside and offered me a packet stuffed with money … It was clearly to keep my mouth shut … I was not prepared for such a situation … Imagine the mental state of a father who had just lost her only daughter," said old man in his late sixties adding "I refused the offer and pointed at his 'IPS' insignia and said 'the way you earned your police service through hard labour my daughter too had earned her degree."

The father of the victim broke down and said how, "they were trying to purchase the honour of my dead daughter … it was the last thing expected from a senior police officer." On whether he asked about the source of the money or whether he was asked by his superior officers to do so the parent of the victim replied in the negative.

The ordeal of the family did not end there. "Sometime later a couple of police personnel came back and asked us to tell before a video camera that no money had been offered to us and we had no other way but follow their instructions as there was intense pressure … our whole house was surrounded by 300-400 policemen."

The victim's body was found in a semi nude state inside the seminar hall of the RGKMCH in the early morning of August 9.

The parents also said explained their agony at the hospital and the police stations saying "we were made to sit for more than three hours before the body of our daughter was showed to us … this even as her mother went on crying and pleading before them to show our daughter's face for once … our suffering did not stop there … we were made to sit inside the Tala Police Station for more than an hour in the evening before they told us that the body of our daughter had been sent to our house at Sodpur … without informing us … we rushed back home where we were offered money."

When asked as to why they would not protest against the postmortem getting done in the same hospital where the incident took place, the father of the victim said, "at any given point we were surrounded by hundreds of policemen … I had made a feeble point that her postmortem should be done elsewhere but none listened to us."

Subsequent reports related to the postmortem revealed that the former principal of the RGKMCH Sandip Ghosh had exercised his clout get the autopsy done inside his own college and by a team of his doctors selected by him.

Curiously even as the statement of victim's parents went viral two State ministers on Thursday told a hurriedly convened press conference how the victim's parents had earlier had gone on record saying that no money was offered to them.

"I don't think that the parents of the victim are telling the right think because we do have a video suggesting that they had themselves told in front of the camera that no money had been offered to them," said Bengal minister Dr Shashi Panja.

When asked to comment on the statements made by the minister, the father of the victim said, "why should we tell out of the way that no money has been asked from us … since this statement is not coming from any media it is clear that we were not reacting to any media reports … so it seems that the police prepared this video to pre-empt future such claims that money had been offered by them."

Meanwhile, Kolkata, nay entire Bengal erupted with an estimated 20 lakh people "reclaiming the night" once again on Wednesday breaking the records of a similar incident on August 14. Thousands of people, mostly women from all the social layers converged at various points of Kolkata from Shyam Bazaar to Esplanade, to Bow Bazaar, to Rashbehari, to Gariahaat to Garia to Jadavpur and many more places --- singing revolutionary songs --- sources said adding similar programmes were organized in districts where thousands of people participated.