CM Adhikari orders fresh probe by Bengal Police into RG Kar rape-murder case

Kolkata, Aug 9 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday ordered a re-investigation by the state police behind the hurried cremation of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim in August 2024 at crematorium in Panhati of North 24 Parganas district on the evening of this day two years ago.

The body of the woman junior doctor was recovered from the seminar room within the premises of the state-run R.G Kar Medial College and Hospital in Kolkata in the morning of August 9, 2024, and later it was proved that she was raped and murdered on the night of August 8.

There were allegations that both the victim’s family members and state’s junior doctors, following the incident that not only the post-mortem and inquest of the victim’s body was hurriedly conducted, but it was also cremated at a crematorium at Panihati, the ancestral residence of the deceased woman doctor.

It was also alleged that the victim’s body was hurriedly cremated at the Panihati crematorium under supervision of the then principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati Nirmal Ghosh, and a section of the senior officials of the Kolkata Police, to ensure that the victim’s body would not be available for a repeat autopsy.

While addressing a programme at Panihati in memory of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim on Sunday, Chief Minister Adhikari announced the decision of re-reinvestigation behind the hurried cremation and said that the fresh investigation will be done under the supervision of the current Commissioner of Barrackpore Police Commisserate, under whose jurisdiction Panihati comes.

“The role of three persons named Nirmal Ghosh, Somnath Dey and Sanjeev Mukherjee in the cremation ground where the body of the woman junior doctor was cremated needs to be investigated. I have been ordered to register a new case separately and investigate the matter, apart from the count-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). I have asked the Barrackpore Police Commissioner to take necessary steps in this regard. There is mystery why no cremation charge was taken for cremation of the victim’s body. Why was the victim’s body cremated without the signature of any family member? All these will be probed again,” the Chief Minister said.

“So, this is an area where a fresh investigation will be conducted by the state police,” he added.

On Saturday, the state Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee, an acclaimed medical practitioner, announced that while the CBI will continue with its own probe in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case, the West Bengal Health Department will also conduct a separate and independent investigation, considering that the victim was a woman junior doctor.

He said the department will share its findings with the CBI.

According to the Minister, the Health Department will question those who went to the crime site, reportedly a seminar room within the hospital premises, before and after the incident which occurred on the night of August 8, 2024.

Professors of the deceased victim will also be questioned in connection with the rape and murder case.

–IANS

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