Two months after the trial for the rape-murder of a doctor attached to RG Kar Hospital started, the trial court today said that the judgement would be delivered on January 18, leading to a storm of protest from the parents of the murdered resident doctors and the organisations of doctors which had spearheaded the widespread demonstrations following the crime. A civic police volunteer Sanjoy Roy is the sole accused in the rape and murder.
“We have been saying for long that Sanjoy Roy did not act on his own. He was part of a team that tortured and murdered my daughter. My daughter will only get peace once those who perpetrated this crime are all brought to book. The CBI has not probed the matter properly to uncover the whole truth,” said the father of the victim. “Our fight to get justice for our daughter will continue. This is just the beginning, not the end.” he added.
Dr Aniket Mahato, a leader of the Joint Forum of Doctors, said: “We have been saying for long that this rape-murder could not have been committed by only one person. We have maintained that there is a huge conspiracy that has not been uncovered yet. The role of the police and the higher administration in the State which worked overtime to cover up the crime and tampered with the evidence on the scene of crime, should have been probed by the CBI team. But we have not seen any of that. We shall continue to fight for justice.”
CBI sources said that a total of 52 witnesses had testified in court and that the CBI had sought the highest punishment for Sanjoy Roy. They said that a supplementary chargesheet could be filed later. The parents of the doctor who was raped and murdered had last month moved the Calcutta High Court, seeking a fresh investigation into the crime.
The parents had expressed a lack of confidence in the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after a city court granted bail to two accused — former principal of the medical college and hospital, and former officer-in-charge of Tala police station – who had been accused of tampering with evidence. They had sought a direction for a fresh investigation into the case. The parents, in the writ petition, highlighted the presence of numerous people in the seminar hall where their daughter’s body was found, and said this raised suspicion of potential tampering or mishandling of evidence.
“CBI filed a chargesheet on Oct 7, 2024 only against Sanjay Roy under sections 64, 66, and 103 (1) of BNS. It is suspicious as to why the names of Abhijit Mandal, being the SHO, Tala Police Station, and Sandip Ghosh, being the principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, have not been implicated as accused despite their names being recorded to have been involved in attempting to hush up the matter and destroy evidence,” the petition said.
The parents also claimed that relevant witnesses who were present with their daughter on the night of the incident had not been included in the list of 51 witnesses. “From the purport of the entire examination and investigation, it would be evident that the entire trial is being conducted in a manner to implicate and target only one person, accused Sanjay Roy, to the exclusion of the other suspects. From the post-mortem report itself, it is evident that Sanjay Roy cannot be the only person who committed the offence,” it said.
The parents also questioned why call recordings furnished to CBI did not find a place in the chargesheet and why the lady who had called them claiming to be the assistant superintendent (non-medical) of RG Kar had not been made an accused. On December 13, the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sealdah had granted bail to former principal Sandip Ghosh and Tala police station’s officer-in-charge Abhijit Mondal in the case. They were granted bail as the CBI had failed to file chargesheets against them within the 90-day statutory period.
The body of a trainee doctor was recovered at a seminar room of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 and the prime accused Roy was arrested by Kolkata Police in a day. The CBI filed a chargesheet against Roy on October 7. The parents of the doctor had also approached the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and joined protests organised by the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front (WBJDF). They had said they would continue with the protests till justice was delivered.