Wrap up RG Kar probe by Sunday or else we'll call CBI, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tells cops
Times of India | 13 August 2024
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee speaks after meeting the victim’s family in Sodepur on Monday KOLKATA: Kolkata Police has time till Sunday to wind up the RG Kar rape-murder probe, failing which Bengal govt will hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee gave this ultimatum to the local police force after talking to the 31-year-old doctor's parents at their Sodepur home on Monday. Banerjee, speaking to the media after a 45-minute interaction with the family, also spoke of their suspicion of an "insider role": "There were nurses and others around.
I still do not understand how this incident took place.The parents have told me that they suspect the involvement of an insider. I have told the police that if there is any suspicion against anyone - be it the doctor's friends or the first caller (who informed the family of the incident) - they should be questioned."
The chief minister, expressing shock at the "brutality of how she was killed", repeated her promise that prosecution would demand capital punishment.
The CM, while saying she had nothing against a CBI probe, reminded everyone of the central agency's lack of success in taking the big cases to their logical conclusion. "I do not have any issue with a CBI takeover but their success rate is low," she said, referring to the Tapasi Malik murder case (2006), the Rizwanur death case (2007) and the Santiniketan Tagore Nobel prize medal theft case (2004).
KP seniors, within hours of the CM's deadline, increased the number of officials assigned to the SIT probing the case; the core unit, supervising the probe, was expanded from seven to 13, with a team of 150 officers working in three shifts to complete the probe.
KP commissioner Vineet Goyal, who was with the chief minister when she met the family, sounded confident that cops would be able to wrap up the probe “in the next four-five days”.
“We can make more arrests if needed and, even after that if the family is not satisfied (with the KP probe), then whatever Madam (chief minister Banerjee) has said will happen,” he added.
“We have already started a helpline number for doctors to call anonymously (if they have more information). They can come and talk to us physically as well and tell us if they suspect someone. We are also in touch with the family,” Goyal said.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself said the state government had acted promptly.
“The R G Kar principal has resigned on his own. We spoke to him and moved him to another place. We have also removed the medical superintendent-cum-vice-principal and the department head (of chest medicine) as well as the assistant commissioner of police,” Banerjee added.