9.30 am-11.30 am events on Aug 9 hint at ex-OC, ex-princi’s hush-up bid: CBI
Times of India | 10 October 2024
Kolkata: The sequence of events in the two hours between 9.30 am and 11.30 am on Aug 9 has thrown up questions on a larger conspiracy being hatched to “hush up” the crime at RG Kar Medical College. The charge sheet filed by the CBI has thrown up more questions, pointing at the role of former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and a few others, including former Tala police station OC Abhijit Mandal, in the incident.
In its charge sheet, the CBI mentioned that the PGT doctor’s body was discovered lying with uncovered legs at an awkward position between 9.30 am and 9.35 am on Aug 9. The doctor, who first noticed the woman in that state, immediately alerted others. From the testimony of her guide, Sumit Roy Tapadar, the CBI found that he inspected the victim and noticed her eyes half open, pupils dilated and fixed. CBI, in the charge sheet, observed that she was dead by then.
Ghosh, then the principal of the institute, was informed about it after that and the RG Kar police outpost was also alerted. According to Kolkata Police sources, the entire sequence of events happened by 10.10 am.
From the statements of the victim’s parents, CBI investigators found that the first call was made to the parents at 10.53 am. They were informed that the girl was unwell. They were again informed at 11.15 am that she had died by suicide. Investigators have reasons to believe Ghosh was trying to hush up the incident despite her death being detected before 10.10 am on Aug 9. The CBI report also pointed at a 10-hour delay by the Tala police station in preparing the seizure memo. The UD case number 861 was finally registered at 11.30 pm on Aug 9. The FIR (52/2024) was registered at 11.45 pm, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim’s father.
The CBI, in the charge sheet, said the “omissions” on the part of the former Tala OC, Mandal, and Ghosh were aimed at “hushing up the matter” and destroying evidence. The central investigating agency is analysing more than 170 photographs of the seminar hall—the place where the doctor’s body was found—and areas outside to find out clues related to “others” being involved in the larger conspiracy.