The Supreme Court of India said on Tuesday, 17th September, that CBI was probing whether anyone else was involved in the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last month. After reviewing the CBI’s most recent status report on the inquiry’s progress, the Bench chaired by CJI DY Chandrachud stated that disclosing the line of investigation would compromise the probe.
“Making a disclosure today of what the CBI is investigating will jeopardize the process, the line, which is taken by the CBI is to unearth the truth. The SHO has been arrested himself, we have seen the status report and the CBI has responded to all of the issues we have raised, including whether the challan was given, what was the process of PMR (post-mortem report), whether the evidence was destroyed, if any complicity by another person, etc,” the CJI said.
The Bench said, “There is genuine concern by the father of the deceased in regard to certain specific leads in the investigation is obtained, we will not reveal his letter, it’s confidential. We will say these are very valuable inputs for the CBI. They are handicapped themselves at this point in time by the five-day delay, but they should also look at this to ensure this is obtained.”
After a counsel informed that the victim’s jeans and underwear were not collected, the CJI replied, “What the CBI has revealed in the report is worse, really disturbing, what you are flagging is of utmost concern, we are concerned, the CBI has flagged it for us.”
After Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, objected that Wikipedia had not deleted the victim’s name and photo, the CJI responded, “We will pass an order, the name and photo cannot be there.” The hearing is still underway. The Bench, which noticed a missing post-mortem challan on September 9th, is also expected to look into the document that the West Bengal government will likely send.
Surprised by the missing challan of the victim’s body when it was handed over for post-mortem, the Bench, which took suo motu cognizance of the horrific incident that sparked a nationwide doctors’ protest on August 18th, had asked the state government to produce the crucial document on September 17th.
The post-mortem challan is an important document that includes entries about the articles and materials delivered along with the body for autopsy. Junior doctors in West Bengal have been on strike since August 9th, when the horribly wounded body of a postgraduate trainee doctor was discovered in the seminar room of the RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata.
The Kolkata Police first filed a case of unnatural death and arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, the next day. However, based on a plea submitted by the victim’s parents, the Calcutta High Court referred the matter to the CBI on August 13th, expressing unhappiness with the Kolkata Police’s investigation. The CBI questioned Dr. Sandip Ghosh, former Principal of RG Kar Medical College, and later arrested him in a corruption, rape, and murder case.
The top court chastised the Kolkata Police for the delay in filing the case after the junior doctor’s body was discovered at the hospital, finding it “extremely disturbing”.
