Saturday, August 9, marks one year since a junior doctor was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. While her parents await justice, the cases related to the incident are still being heard at the Calcutta High Court, and courts in Sealdah and Alipore.
Here’s a quick look at the status of the ongoing cases:
On January 18 this year, the Additional District and Sessions Court in Sealdah convicted civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy of rape and murder in the R G Kar case, and sentenced him to life imprisonment days later.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has continued to probe the case, submitted its fifth status report before the Sealdah court on July 16, stating that seven witnesses have been examined. The CBI also submitted that it has scanned 32 terabytes of CCTV footage as part of its investigation.
The Sealdah court is also hearing a case against former R G Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and the then officer in-charge of Tala police station, Abhijit Mondol, who were arrested on September 14 last year on charges of tampering with evidence in the rape-murder case.
In December last year, the lower court granted bail to Ghosh and Mondol after the CBI failed to submit a chargesheet within the stipulated 90 days. The court granted bail on a surety bond of Rs 2,000 each and on the condition that the accused would appear before the CBI as and when called.
While Mondol is out on bail, Ghosh remains in jail in connection with a financial irregularities case involving the hospital.
After the Sealdah court convicted Sanjoy Roy in January and sentenced him to life imprisonment, the West Bengal government and the CBI challenged the order before the Calcutta High Court, appealing for capital punishment. On February 7, a division bench admitted the CBI’s plea and dismissed the government’s appeal.
In July, Roy moved the Calcutta High Court seeking acquittal in the case. During the hearing, his counsel submitted, “With only witness statements and circumstantial evidence, one cannot be convicted for life. There is enough evidence to prove that the convict is innocent.” On July 16, a division bench accepted the plea.
The high court will hear both pleas in September.
Former R G Kar principal Sandip Ghosh was booked in another case of financial irregularities at the hospital during his tenure, along with Ashish Pandey, the then house staff, vendors Biplab Singha and Suman Hazra, and Afsar Ali Khan, additional security to Ghosh.
It was alleged that the financial fraud was underway at the hospital for over three years, during which tenders were rigged while purchasing medical equipment for the hospital. Ghosh allegedly helped his associates bag the tenders.
On August 23 last year, the Calcutta High Court transferred the probe from the state-constituted Special Investigation Team to the CBI.
The direction came in response to a petition by former deputy superintendent of the medical facility, Dr Akhtar Ali, who prayed for a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into multiple counts of alleged financial misconduct at the state-run hospital during Ghosh’s tenure as principal. In his plea, Ali had accused Ghosh of illegal sale of unclaimed corpses, trafficking of biomedical waste, and passing tenders in lieu of commission paid by medicine and medical equipment suppliers.
The chargesheet was filed in November 2024, nearly three months after Ghosh’s arrest.
In July this year, the trial in the financial irregularities case commenced at the Alipore CBI court with the framing of charges. “The first witness is being examined,” Rahuf Zohab, the counsel for Ghosh, told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, the counsel for the victim’s family said that they would continue to fight till they got “actual justice”. “The way the CBI is working, we are thinking of a re-investigation. We have obtained certain reports from senior doctors and specialists, and we will place them as and when required. Questions placed before the CBI are yet to be answered. Whatever investigation was done by the Kolkata Police in the first few days has been placed in the chargesheet. There is nothing new on the CBI’s part,” Amartya Dey, the counsel, said.