Kolkata horror: 'Ex-RG Kar principal Sandeep Ghosh might be following orders from person involved in larger conspiracy'
Times of India | 18 September 2024
KOLKATA: CBI on Tuesday told a special court in Kolkata that till now it had evidence against one suspect in the Aug 9 RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case but was still probing the gang-rape angle.
It also said it suspected that former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and former Tala police station OC Abhijit Mandal were part of a "larger conspiracy" but failed to provide any evidence to corroborate its claims.The duo has been charged with conspiracy along with destruction of evidence in the rape-murder case.
Asked seven times by magistrate Debashis Dey to show "one piece of evidence to corroborate that they (Ghosh and Mandal) had conspired in the rape and murder", CBI claimed there was possibility of Ghosh acting under "the direction of some person involved in the larger conspiracy" of destruction of evidence and attempt to hush up the matter.
"We cannot directly say that they were involved in the rape and murder. But we are not ruling that out. A lot of versions are there and we need to unravel the truth," the CBI counsel said.
Ex-Tala OC, ex-RG Kar principal come face to face in CBI presence
On the first day of their interrogation, the CBI on Monday brought former Tala police station OC Abhijit Mandal and former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh face to face to question them on the PGT doctor's rape and murder. The agency, which has found discrepancies in their statements, suspects Mandal tried to protect arrested accused Sanjay Roy and others, as it mentioned in the Sealdah ACJM court.
CBI officers took Mandal and Ghosh to B R Singh Hospital in the morning and in the afternoon, they sat them together to confront them with their statements.
Ghosh was alerted about the doctor's death shortly after the body was first spotted by a first-year PGT doctor, Soumitra Roy, at 9.30 am. Mandal was informed about the incident at 10.03 am, according to CBI's submission in court. The RG Kar police outpost called up the police station at 10.10 am to inform them that a woman's body was lying in an unconscious state. Based on it, a general diary was registered and cops left for the spot immediately. CBI officers on Monday asked Mandal the reason for the police station's seven-minute delay in filing the GD, when he was already aware of it. CBI officers also asked Mandal why did the Tala PS, in the GD, mention the woman "unconscious", when a doctor had found her dead. The CBI, which suspects Mandal was involved in the destruction of evidence, said he failed to register an FIR under Sec 173 of BNSS.
It was at 10.53 am that the first call reached the victim's parents, who were then reportedly told their daughter was unwell. CBI officers, looking into a larger conspiracy to destroy evidence, said they believed Ghosh planned to destroy evidence in the intervening period and parents were called after it. A CBI officer said the parents, in their statement to them, said the crime scene was altered, that the crime might have taken place elsewhere and the body was brought to that place later. "We don't know who was responsible. It was apparent the crime did not happen there," the victim's mother said on Monday.