Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 26: A court in Kolkata has extended till September 30 the custody to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, and Abhijit Mondal, the suspended former in-charge of Tala police station, while the Supreme Court has rescheduled the hearing in the rape and murder of the trainee postgraduate doctor from Friday to October 1.
“The Sealdah court extended the CBI custody of the duo till September 30, when the next hearing will be held and consent of Ghosh and Mondal for narco-analysis and polygraph tests, respectively, will be sought,” an official said. The body of a woman medic was found in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9 and a Kolkata Police civic volunteer Sanjay Roy was arrested the next day for his alleged direct involvement in the incident.
Later, the CBI, which took over the investigation as per the direction of the Calcutta High Court, arrested Mr Ghosh and the police officer.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala was urged by a counsel appearing for one of the parties that the suo motu case of the rape and murder of the Kolkata medic, which is listed for hearing on September 27, be heard next week due to some urgent reasons. “We will list it on hearing on next Tuesday that is October 1,” the CJI had said.
The top court on September 17 had said it was disturbed by the findings given in a status report filed by the CBI in the rape and murder case but refused to divulge the details. It had said any disclosure may jeopardise the ongoing investigation.
It had also said the CBI was not “sleeping over” the investigation and it needed to be given time to “unearth the truth.” “What the CBI has revealed in the report is really disturbing. What you are flagging is of utmost concern. We ourselves are concerned, that the CBI has flagged it for us. We are ourselves disturbed by what we have read,” the top court had told a lawyer who claimed discrepancies in the seizure list and sketch of the crime scene.
The CBI has told a local court in Kolkata that “some false records, pertaining to the case, were created at the Tala Police Station.” The federal agency, tasked by the Calcutta High Court with investigating the killing of the junior doctor last month, also said it had CCTV footage from the police station in question, and that this has been sent to a central forensics lab in the city for examination. Kolkata Police has not yet responded.
This significant twist in the case comes after the CBI interrogated Abhijit Mondal who was arrested on charges of tampering with evidence, and Dr Sandip Ghosh held over alleged financial irregularities. On Wednesday the agency had produced Mondal and Ghosh before the court following completion of their remand. The court subsequently sent them to judicial custody till September 30.
Last week the agency told the court it suspects a ‘nexus’ between the two; the CBI referred to phone calls between Mondal and Ghosh. Mondal’s lawyer pointed out that given a serious crime had been reported from the hospital it was normal for the two to speak multiple times.
That point was flagged in the trial court yet again and the defence pointed out the CBI, though it had made these critical allegations, had not provided evidence to back its claims. Apart from identifying those guilty of the killing of the 31-year-old junior doctor, the CBI is also investigating reports of destruction of evidence in connection with the rape and murder.
Mondal, the CBI has said, was not an accused in the rape or murder, but may have played a role in the cover-up that followed. The West Bengal government and police force are facing severe scrutiny in this regard, with many alleging the state was trying to protect those guilty.
The CBI is also probing a “criminal conspiracy” between Mondal, Ghosh, and Roy, pointing to the “unnecessary delay of two days” in the seizure of the clothes the latter wore on the day. This, the agency told the court, could have led to contamination of material evidence.
Among the points of order flagged by the High Court and Supreme Court (which took suo motu cognisance) is that there was a 14-hour delay between finding the body and filing a police case. Both courts have demanded to know why the hospital administration, then led by Sandip Ghosh, did not do so immediately, which would, in turn, have ensured the police filed a FIR.
The CBI has also reportedly questioned another doctor – Birupaksha Biswas, allegedly close to Ghosh – in connection with the rape and murder. Biswas was reportedly part of the ‘North Bengal lobby’, which medics in the state say have threatened medical students in the past.
The junior doctors have only partially rejoined duties after striking for over 40 days to protest the killing of their colleague. They rejoined for essential and emergency services only. The doctors made it clear this partial return was not an end to their agitation. “If needed, we will begin protests again,” they said.