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Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari suspends 3 senior IPS officers over RG Kar rape-murder case ‘lapses’
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the Bengal government will start departmental probe against ex-Kolkata Commissioner of Police Vineet Goyal.
West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday suspended former Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal and two other Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta, on charges of mishandling the 2024 RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case and offering money to the deceased’s parents.
“After taking charge as home minister, I sought reports from the home secretary and the Kolkata police commissioner on what actions police initially took after the RG Kar incident. The fact-finding exercise pointed to mishandling of the case, lapses in lodging the FIR (First Information Report), and illegal monetary offers to the victim’s family,” Adhikari said at the state secretariat.
“We will check all phone call records and WhatsApp chats to find out if any minister or the chief minister gave any orders to these officers,” Adhikari said without naming former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in charge of both the home and health departments.
“We are suspending Vineet Goyal, who is currently ADG (IB), and two other officers, Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta. Departmental proceedings will start against them under the chief secretary’s guidelines. Since they belong to the Union cadre, procedural action will be taken as per rules,” he added.
“The probe into the actual crime is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). I am not getting into it. The court is supervising that,” he said.
The mother of the 31-year-old junior doctor raped and murdered inside Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on the morning of August 9, 2024, won the North 24 Parganas district’s Panihati seat for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent polls after carrying out a crusade in court and on the streets for two years.
She alleged after the crime that senior politicians and government officials hatched a conspiracy to kill her daughter to hide something. She also alleged that Abhishek Gupta (a 2011-batch officer), who was the deputy commissioner of Kolkata’s north division, was one of the officers who went to her home in North 24 Parganas and offered money.
At midnight on March 14, 2024, while women across Bengal held peaceful demonstrations on the streets, a few hundred people stormed RG Kar Hospital and vandalised the crime scene despite heavy police deployment. Gupta was pulled up by the then administration for his absence from duty that night.
Goyal (1994 batch) faced severe criticism from citizens for naming the victim at his first press conference — violating Supreme Court guidelines — and for making certain comments.
Mukherjee (2013 batch), who was deputy commissioner of the central division, held back-to-back press conferences to make certain claims, although she was neither in charge of the probe nor did the crime take place in the area under her jurisdiction.
The chief minister mentioned these without naming the officers.
“The victim’s mother alleged that two police officers tried to give her money on behalf of the government. We have to probe this allegation. But these officers have to be suspended to make the probe impartial. We will check all phone call records and WhatsApp chats to find out if any minister or the chief minister gave any orders to the officers. These are all part of the investigation,” the chief minister said.
“A deputy commissioner called a press conference. The officer’s language and attitude in front of the media were not desirable. The language shook all women. It ruined the honour of Bengal. The officer briefed the media without being the authorised spokesperson of the home department. At least there was no permission in writing. All three officers have to face the inquiry. If the victim’s parents want to say anything, our officers will go to their home to record their statements,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari added that more decisions on the RG Kar Hospital crime and other issues would be taken at the state cabinet’s next meeting on Monday.
On August 10, 2024, Kolkata police arrested 34-year-old Sanjay Roy, a civic police volunteer, as the prime suspect. Amid a nationwide furore, junior doctors at all state-run hospitals started a cease-work movement demanding justice and accusing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of shielding the real culprits.
On August 13, 2024, the Calcutta high court ordered the CBI to take over the case from the Kolkata Police. Roy was sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life in January 2025. The victim’s parents, however, kept saying that there was a larger conspiracy and the CBI failed to expose it.
Before the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah both campaigned for Ratna Debnath, the victim’s mother, who took oath as MLA on Wednesday.
After Adhikari passed the order, Debnath said, “This is the only battle for me. I am happy but I will not rest till my daughter gets justice. I am living only for her.”
Aniket Mahato, one of the prominent faces of the doctors’ movement at the time, welcomed Adhikari’s decision.
“We always demanded a thorough investigation into the role of the police officers who handled the case. We kept saying they were working under instructions from the top,” he said.
No TMC leader had commented on the development till 4 pm.
