RG Kar tragedy: Trial to commence at special court from 11 Nov
The Statesman | 5 November 2024
The trial into the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of R G Kar Medical College & Hospital in August this year will commence from 11 November at a special court in the West Bengal capital, an official said on Monday.
The trial will be conducted on a fast-track and daily basis. The process of the framing of charge was completed exactly 87 days after the body of the lady junior doctor was discovered at a seminar hall within the R G Kar premises in the morning of August 9 this year.
Around a month ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its first charge sheet into the matter at the special court where Roy, a civic volunteer with Kolkata Police, was described as the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder case.
However, in the charge sheet, CBI officials did not rule out the possibilities of a larger conspiracy behind the macabre crime that prompted alleged events of tampering and altering of evidence during the initial phase of the investigation which was carried out by Kolkata Police.
On Monday, Roy was presented in person at the special court. After the framing of charges was completed and the date of the trial commencement was completed, he was again taken out of the court.
Outside court, Roy claimed that he was innocent.
“I neither committed the rape nor the murder. I am innocent. I am being falsely implicated by the government,” he claimed.
He also accused government officials of constantly threatening him to remain silent.
“I was silent for such a long time. But despite the fact that I am innocent, no one is listening to me. I am constantly being threatened not to open my mouth. I have even been threatened by my own departmental colleagues. I am innocent,” he claimed repeatedly.
Besides Roy, two others arrested by the CBI officials in the matter are the former principal of RG Kar Hospital, Sandip Ghosh and former SHO of Tala police station Abhijit Mondal. R G Kar comes under the jurisdiction of Tala police station.
The main charges against Ghosh and Mondal are misleading the investigation when the Kolkata Police were carrying out the investigation before it was handed over to CBI by Calcutta High Court. Both have been accused of tampering with evidence in the case.
However, West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body spearheading the movement in the rape and murder issue, have objected to the findings in CBI’s charge sheet identifying only Sanjay Roy as the “sole prime accused” in the main crime of rape and murder.
They have claimed that crime cannot be the handiwork of one person and that there were surely partners in the crime.