Kolkata hospital horror: Parents cried murder at 3pm but FIR was lodged only at 11.45pm. Why the delay?
Times of India | 21 August 2024
Women take out a protest march in Balurghat on Tuesday KOLKATA: The parents of the postgraduate resident doctor whose body was discovered in a seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug 9 first raised the alarm of “murder” around 3pm that day.
However, the formal FIR was not lodged until 11.45pm, nearly eight-anda-half hours later — more than three hours after the body had already been handed over to the family for cremation at 8.30pm.The case has sparked scrutiny, with Kolkata police under pressure to explain the procedural delay in handling the 31-year-old doctor’s rape and murder.
Documents from court proceedings and interviews with police officers revealed that assistant professor Sumit Kumar Tapadar notified police at 9.45am about the discovery of the body in a “seminar room” and urged them to file an FIR. However, police received the official written complaint from hospital authorities at 2.45pm.
The police timeline showed they were informed of the death at 10.10am and arrived at the scene by 10.30am. Kolkata police’s homicide squad reached the location by 11am, followed by senior officers by 12.30pm. By 12.45pm, an “unnatural death” (UD) case was registered. The victim’s father criticised the delay. “We told everyone it was a case of murder after seeing the body around 3pm. We lodged our complaint around 5 or 5.30pm.
But the FIR was formally registered hours later. Only the police know why,” he said Tuesday. During a Supreme Court hearing, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud addressed the delay. “It is the obligation of the hospital authorities to file an FIR immediately after such an incident occurs, regardless of whether the parents were present,” he said.
According to senior criminal lawyer Milon Mukherjee, it was legally permissible for police to first lodge an UD case, as they had not yet determined whether the cause of death was suicidal, homicidal, or accidental. “However, once the autopsy determined murder, particularly, in the RG Kar case, police could have suo motu registered an FIR under specific sections of the new law dealing with murder,” he said.
Fellow criminal lawyer Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee said a UD case is typically registered when the cause of death is unclear, but all signs in this case pointed to murder. Senior police officers defended the delay. A Kolkata police officer said: “The UD case allowed us to begin our investigation, including inquest, seizure, and autopsy.
The delay in filing the formal FIR was due to officers being occupied with law and order duties. When the officer in charge returned to the station, the FIR was filed in accordance with Section 111 of the Police Regulations, Calcutta, 1968.”