The Supreme Court on Wednesday referred the monitoring of the investigation into the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to the Calcutta high court and directed the status reports filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the case to be supplied to the victim’s father.
The order was passed in a suo motu proceeding initiated by the top court soon after the incident took place in August 2023, which led to widespread protests as the incident occurred when the doctor was on duty, raising concerns among doctors of safety at workplace. The court had subsequently constituted a national task force (NTF) to recommend on the working conditions and well-being of the doctor community across the country.
A bench of justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma noted that the matter could be monitored better by the high court that is already hearing a petition filed by the parents of the victim. In January this year, a court in Sealdah had sentenced the main culprit of the crime Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment even as the CBI continued probe on the possible role of other accused in the crime.
“We refer the entire matter to a division bench of the Calcutta high court with a request to the chief justice to place the matter before an appropriate bench,” the bench said, as the CBI represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta supported this decision while the father of the victim, represented by senior advocate Karuna Nundy requested the court to supply the three status reports filed by CBI in sealed cover to the court so far.
{{/usCountry}}“We refer the entire matter to a division bench of the Calcutta high court with a request to the chief justice to place the matter before an appropriate bench,” the bench said, as the CBI represented by solicitor general Tushar Mehta supported this decision while the father of the victim, represented by senior advocate Karuna Nundy requested the court to supply the three status reports filed by CBI in sealed cover to the court so far.
{{/usCountry}}Mehta said that the Code of Criminal Procedure allows a copy of the investigation report to be provided to the victim and the parents can get it in that capacity. The court directed the registry of the top court to supply CBI status reports to the victim’s father and to transmit the case file to the high court.
The trainee doctor’s rape and murder took place in August 2023 and 34-year-old Roy, who worked as a civic volunteer for Kolkata Police at the time of commission of crime, was sentenced to remain in jail for the rest of his life.
The victim’s father had approached the top court seeking investigation by CBI into “grey areas” in the investigation while continuing to monitor further probe. The CBI had stated in its charge sheet about the role of RG Kar’s former principal Sandip Ghosh and former office-in-charge Abhijit Mondal, who were arrested by the agency. However, as no supplementary chargesheet was filed against them, they were released on bail.