Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislator Nirmal Ghosh was arrested on Thursday over the alleged hasty cremation of the junior doctor, who was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in 2024.
The arrest on charges of destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy, and forcing someone to act against their will came four days after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari ordered an inquiry. Three TMC leaders, including Ghosh, were named in the case that was subsequently filed.
A police officer said that Ghosh had been absconding since July 11. He added that his son, Tirthankar, was arrested in another criminal case in which he is a prime accused last month.
Police said Ghosh was arrested in Odisha and is being brought to Kolkata by road. He will be produced before a court on Friday.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said Nirmal Ghosh should be punished if he is guilty of anything. “But it must also be taken into account that political leaders do a lot of things to help people in distress.”
Adhikari ordered the inquiry into the cremation on the day two-minute silence was observed across all hospitals on the second anniversary of the 2024 incident, which triggered protests and national outrage.
Bengal CM ordered fresh probe
{{/usCountry}}Adhikari ordered the inquiry into the cremation on the day two-minute silence was observed across all hospitals on the second anniversary of the 2024 incident, which triggered protests and national outrage.
Bengal CM ordered fresh probe
{{/usCountry}}On August 10, Adhikari said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the main crime and the alleged corruption at RG Kar Hospital on the Calcutta high court’s orders. “I cannot do anything there. But I have found one aspect that the police can probe. It is the cremation at the obscure Nataghat crematorium,” Adhikari said at an event in memory of the doctor.
The doctor’s body was found on August 9, 2024. Her post-mortem examination was completed within hours, and the body was cremated by evening.
Adhikari directed the Barrackpore police commissioner to register a new case and take appropriate action. “In the cremation schedule, it was the third body on the list that day, but the number was changed from three to one. According to rules, relatives of a deceased person have to pay a cremation fee and sign documents, but the victim’s family did neither,” Adhikari said on August 10.
He added that Nirmal Ghosh and local TMC leaders Somnath Dey and Sanjib Mukherjee did this and must be punished.
Ratna Debnath, the doctor’s mother, defeated Nirmal Ghosh’s son from the Panihati assembly seat in May on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket.
The fresh case was filed on a complaint by the doctor’s father. In the complaint, the father alleged that Dey arranged a green corridor to bring the body from Kolkata to Panihati after the post-mortem examination instead of handing it to the family. He accused Nirmal Ghosh, Dey, Mukherjee and TMC workers of forcibly entering their home, threatening them to take the body for cremation fast. “They forcibly took the body to the crematorium without allowing us to follow any social norms,” the complaint said.
It added that the cremation was done against the family’s wishes and the TMC leaders forcibly stopped them from signing the cremation papers.
Ghosh, Dey and Mukherjee have denied these allegations over the past two years, saying they merely tried to help the family.
On Thursday, Chhanda, Nirmal Ghosh’s daughter, said her father cooperated with the investigating officers and responded to three summons during the first probe two years ago. “The state police made all the arrangements to bring the body to Panihati for cremation. We will seek legal help since my father has been arrested. If the chief minister is concerned about one family, then he should be concerned about us as well.”
In May, the Calcutta high court ordered the formation of a three-member CBI special investigation team for a second investigation.
The first CBI probe, ordered days after the crime, reached the same conclusion as the Kolkata police, which resulted in the life sentence of former Kolkata police civic volunteer Sanjay Roy.
On May 15, Adhikari suspended former Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal and two other officers, Indira Mukherjee and Abhisek Gupta, on charges of mishandling the rape and murder case and offering money to the doctor’s parents.