Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 13: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday transferred the investigation into the alleged rape and murder of the trainee postgraduate doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after making stringent observation that the hospital administration did not seem to be with the victim or the victim’s family.
A division bench of Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya said prima facie there had been no significant progress made in the investigation in the case and directed that the case diary and other records be transferred to the CBI by 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
The bench also urged the protesting doctors to call off their strike. “We are truly appreciative of the feelings of the doctors of R.G. Kar Medical College. But we appeal to consider calling off the agitation so that people coming to the hospital for treatment are not prejudiced,” the bench said.
Stating that it was very justified to say that the administration was not with the victim or the victim’s family, the court noted serious lapses in the hospital administration’s response after the doctor was found dead in its seminar hall on Friday morning, her clothes in disarray and injuries all over her body. The victim’s parents, the court said, want an investigation by an independent body to ensure that evidence was not tampered with.
The court came down heavily on Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the state-run college, saying it was “disheartening” that he was not “proactive.” The court also flagged that the former Principal was given the same role in another college hours after he resigned and said he must be immediately relieved of duties and sent on leave.
The Chief Justice had asked why a murder case was not registered by the principal at the outset and an unnatural death case was initiated at Tala police station. The bench said the body of the postgraduate trainee was not found on the roadside, and the superintendent or the principal of the hospital could have filed the complaint.
Justice Sivagnanam also asked as to how principal Sandip Kumar Ghosh was rewarded with a post of principal of another medical college hours after stepping down from the hospital where the incident occurred. “Your client should be sent home. So powerful, he is,” the Chief Justice said.
The Court raised questions on why the statement was not recorded from the principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital after the incident. “Why do you protect. That statement is the basis… Something is missing,” the Court added.
The family of the deceased doctors and several other petitioners had approached the Calcutta High Court demanding an investigation by the CBI in the crime. The Kolkata Police has started an investigation into the alleged rape and murder and arrested a civic police volunteer for the crime. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier given a deadline to the Kolkata police to crack the case by August 18 failing which she will transfer the case to the CBI.
Dr Ghosh stepped down on Monday saying that he could not take the humiliation on social media in the wake of the doctor’s rape-murder. Hours later, he was given a new role as the Principal of Calcutta National Medical College. This sparked a wave of protest, as protesting doctors questioned the rush behind his new appointment.
Pulling up the state government for giving a new role to Dr Ghosh shortly after his resignation, the court said, “The appropriate authority should have borne in mind the circumstances under which the resignation was given. Therefore, even that resignation was not accepted, the least that can be expected from the department is to release the Principal from the administrative responsibility and not assign him any other duty of equal responsibility. This professor has been made Principal of another medical college. It is not clear as to what was the urgency in doing so.”
The court also said Dr Ghosh was the first person whose statement must have been recorded by investigators. “We don’t doubt his professional skills but once he is appointed principal he is an administrator. You should have recorded his statement, why protect him? There is something amiss.”
The hospital administration, the court noted, was not with the victim or the family of the victim. “The case on hand is a peculiar case. There should be no further loss of time. There may be possibility of evidence being tampered,” the court said.
The high court also noted that it would have given more time to state police under “normal circumstances”. “Even after five days there have been no significant conclusions which should have happened by now. Therefore, we are justified that there is every possibility that evidence will be destroyed. We deem it appropriate that the case must be transferred to CBI with immediate effect,” the court said.
The court, which also asked tough questions of the state’s handling of this horrific crime, including keeping the doctor’s parents waiting for information and possibly even protecting Dr Ghosh, observed the tragic circumstances of the woman’s death did not seem to have much affected him.
“The Principal is the guardian of all doctors working there… if he doesn’t show any empathy who will show? He should be at home not working anywhere…” the bench said while also wondering how it happens that a government lawyer was arguing for Dr Ghosh.
“If the principal stepped down owing ‘moral responsibility’, (it is) rather serious that he is rewarded, within 12 hours, with another appointment. This Principal will not function… let him go on long leave. Otherwise we pass an order,” the court said when told Dr Ghosh had been posted elsewhere.
The High Court was hearing a clutch of petitions, including one by the doctor’s parents seeking a court-monitored probe into their daughter’s death. The parents claimed gross insensitivity in state authorities’ handling of the aftermath of the crime, arguing, “We were told at 9.30 pm she was unwell… then (told) she committed suicide. The hospital did not allow me to see my daughter.”
The parents sought impleading of Dr Ghosh, which turned the court’s attention on him. “He was the principal… he cannot shrug off the responsibility and must be impleaded as accused,” they argued.
“No man is above the law…” the court thundered, “How did he step down and then be rewarded with another responsibility?” The court, which demanded the police’s case diary by 2 pm, also directed Dr Ghosh’s resignation letter be filed, observing, “… we want to see what he has written.” “…why do you protect (him)? Let him tell the truth… something is missing here,” the court said at the end of a brief but intense hearing that included questions of the state government and the cops.
On the parents’ claim – that they were not given timely information about their daughter’s rape and murder, and not allowed to see the body – the court came down strongly on the authorities. “Condition in which body was found was gruesome… but state registered a suicide case. This shows conduct of the state…” senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya representing the parents, said.
“If this is true… that they were made to wait and (then) misled… then the administration is (toying) with them. You cannot treat the deceased like this. There should be more sensitivity.” The other petitions heard today included pleas to transfer the investigation to the CBI and installation of additional security measures on hospital and medical college campuses, such as CCTV cameras.
The court and the police also wonder why initially the hospital administration attempted to mislead the family members of the victim doctor calling her death a suicide. The father of the victim received a phone call Friday morning from the hospital. The caller said his daughter had died by suicide. When he rushed to the hospital, he learnt that his daughter’s body was found in a seminar hall, half-clothed and with bruises. Investigations later revealed that the doctor had been raped and murdered in an assault so brutal it has shocked the nation.
“The Assistant Superintendent of chest medicine department called and said, ‘your daughter died by suicide’. And then we saw the reality when we reached the hospital,” the woman’s father told the media, adding that the official did not name himself during the call.
The father’s remarks have triggered allegations that the college administration attempted a cover-up after the woman doctor’s body was found. According to the probe, she had dinner on Thursday night with four colleagues on the night shift. Police are also speaking to them, among others, to get to the bottom of the matter.
Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer who frequented the hospital, has been arrested and the police said if more culprits were involved, they would be taken into custody over the next four-five days. The Assistant Superintendent and Head of Department of the Chest Medicine wing of the state-run hospital have been summoned to find out why the woman’s family were told she died by suicide.
The woman’s mother has told the media that even after they reached the hospital, they were not allowed to see the body. “I fell at their feet, begging them to let me see my daughter. But they did not. No one understands what I went through. They let us see her at 2 pm.”
The family members have told the media that the victim called her mother that night and told her to have dinner. “We were planning her wedding next year,” a relative said. The family said they won’t get their daughter back, but want her to get justice. “She went to serve the people and ended up sacrificing herself. We just want justice, we don’t want anything else.”
Authorities of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital have come under the scanner for their initial response to the chilling incident. The woman’s family has alleged someone in the chest medicine department could be involved in the horrifying crime. “We want a probe against the whole chest department. We think someone on the inside is involved,” they have told the media.
“What is the guarantee that it was not a supari murder?” Asked if his daughter had enmity with anyone in the department. “No, but everyone can be jealous.”
The family raised this suspicion when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal visited them. “There were nurses and security, I am still unable to understand how this incident took place. Police have informed me that there was someone inside,” Ms Banerjee had stated on Monday.
The BJP has welcomed the High Court’s order to transfer to the CBI. Mr Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in Bengal Assembly, had filed a Public Interest Litigation in the high court, seeking a CBI probe into the case.
Responding to the court’s ruling, Mr Adhikari said in a social media post that the “last bastion of justice” in Bengal has come forward. “In a PIL filed by me along with two others, the cat and mouse game that the State Government was playing to save the skin of the perpetrators by conjuring a cover-up story and a scapegoat, will no longer hold water. The culprits will be caught and punished now,” the BJP leader said.
The Mamata Banerjee administration, he alleged, had failed to protect the life of a hardworking doctor and tried to cover up a gruesome crime against a woman. “The Hon’ble (high court) has come down heavily on the Kolkata Police Commissioner as well as the Principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and has exposed the dirty game that they were playing in cahoots with influential persons in the State Administration,” he said.
“Now that the CBI has taken over the investigation, I have complete faith on the CBI to bring out the truth and put those responsible for snatching away a young daughter from her parents and a competent Doctor from the fraternity. May truth prevail. My prayers for the kindred soul who departed untimely,” Mr Adhikari added.
A two-member team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) visited the hospital on Tuesday. They went to the seminar hall where trainee doctor was raped and murdered.
The two-member team led by Delina Khongdup went to meet the investigating officers at Kolkata Police’s headquarters at Lalbazar after reaching the city, before going to the victim’s Panihati residence to meet the parents. Ms Khongdup described the crime as “heinous” and “very unfortunate incident.”