13 August, Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court heard various pleas on Tuesday in connection with the violent rape and murder of a second-year PG student at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital campus after she ended her midnight rounds and went to rest in the seminar hall.
The Calcutta High Court pointed out the loopholes involved in investigation of recent “Rape and murder case in Kolkata”
A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya questioned the state government after allegations were made that the police had initially registered the deceased’s death as a suicide and informed her parents the same, who kept waiting for hours before they were allowed to see her body.
The bench observed: If it is true that someone phoned the parent and told them that it was illness and then suicide, there is an error somewhere. If it is true that they were forced to wait and mislead, this indicates administration lagging. You cannot handle the deceased in this manner. There should be increased sensitivity.
Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya represented the deceased’s parents, who claimed that they initially received a phone call claiming that she had fallen ill, but when they arrived at the college, they were told that she had committed suicide and were not allowed to see her body for up to three hours.
It was claimed that when they examined her body for identification, they realized that the occurrence could not have been a suicide owing to the severity of the injuries. The senior lawyer requested that the case be swiftly transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) since critical evidence could be destroyed with the passage of time.
Notably, Dr Sandip Ghosh, the medical college’s principal, resigned citing “moral responsibility” but was quickly hired as principal of Calcutta National Medical College, another government college.
In taking offense to such events, the Court stated: No man is above the law; how did he step down only to be rewarded with further responsibility? The principal is the guardian of all doctors working there; if he does not exhibit empathy, who will? He should be at home, not working somewhere.
In response to the allegations, the state said that they had conducted a thorough investigation and that there was no need for additional inquiry. It was argued that a case of unnatural death was registered because no complaint was filed when the deceased’s body was discovered. Despite the fact that officials or the principal could have filed a complaint, none was received.
Infuriated by these submissions, the court retorted: We don’t understand. Didn’t you find the body on the road? The principal could have been the complainant. This is intolerable.