RG Kar rape-murder case: 2nd accused in hurried cremation conspiracy case arrested

Kolkata, Aug 14 (IANS) Sanjeev Mukherjee, another co-accused in the conspiracy of the hurried cremation of the R.G. Kar rape-murder victim’s body in August 2024 at a crematorium at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been arrested, police said on Friday.

The absconding accused was arrested from a house in Chinar Park in Kolkata on Thursday night, an insider from the state police said.

Earlier on Thursday afternoon, the prime accused in the same conspiracy, Nirmal Ghosh, the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati Assembly constituency and the party’s ex-Chief Whip in the Assembly, was arrested from his hideout in neighbouring Odisha.

Ghosh has been brought to Kolkata from Odisha. Both Ghosh and Mukherjee will be presented before a district court in Barrackpore, North 24 Parganas district, later on Friday, and the public prosecutor will seek their police custody.

The third accused in the conspiracy, Somnath Dey, a Trinamool Congress councillor from Panihati Municipality, is still absconding.

While speaking at a programme on the occasion of the second death anniversary of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim on August 8, Chief Minister Sevindu Adhikari announced a fresh probe by the Barrackpore Police Commissariat in the hurried cremation case. It is suspected that the last rites at a crematorium at Panihati were allegedly carried out to eliminate the chance of a second post-mortem of the body.

Thereafter, a fresh FIR was registered at Khardah Police Station under the Barrackpore Police Commissariat naming Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey. The FIR was registered based on a fresh complaint filed by the victim’s father.

Since then, all three accused persons named in the FIR went absconding. However, Ghosh and Mukherjee were arrested in the last 24 hours. Search operations are on at several places to track the third accused in the case, Somnath Dey, who is still on the run.

The body of the female doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was recovered from a seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024. Later, it was found that she was brutally raped and murdered the night before.

Thereafter, allegations surfaced that the victim’s body was hurriedly rushed to the crematorium at Panihati and hastily cremated there, breaching all cremation-related protocols. It is alleged that the entire cremation process was supervised by Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey.

–IANS

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