No faith in CBI probe, RG Kar victim’s parents tell HC, seek fresh trial
Times of India | 20 December 2024
12 Kolkata: Parents of the RG Kar rape-and-murder victim moved Calcutta High Court on Thursday expressing lack of confidence in CBI's probe and seeking a fresh investigation. The HC refused to immediately intervene in the ongoing trial but asked CBI to submit a status report on Dec 24, when the matter will be heard next.
Sanjoy Roy, the principal accused in the case, is set to depose before the Sealdah trial court on Friday.
After the Aug 9 rape-murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College, three writ petitions were filed in Calcutta HC seeking transfer of the case from Kolkata Police to CBI, one of which was moved by the parents. Taking up the petitions, an HC division bench on Aug 13 handed over the investigation to the central agency.
On Thursday, as the fresh petition was moved in HC, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh told Sudipto Moitra, the senior advocate representing the victim's parents, "Don't stall the proceedings (trial) right now." Observing that the Supreme Court was overseeing the matter, the judge said if the parents had any objections to the investigation, the high court would give them a hearing.
CBI's counsel Rajdeep Majumder told the HC that the agency had submitted eight status reports on the progress of investigation before the Supreme Court. But Justice Ghosh instructed him to get a response from the agency in view of the fresh petition.
The parents, in the writ petition, highlighted the presence of numerous people in the seminar hall where their daughter's body was found, and said this raised suspicion of potential tampering or mishandling of evidence. "CBI filed a chargesheet on Oct 7, 2024 only against Sanjay Roy under sections 64, 66, and 103 (1) of BNS. It is suspicious as to why the names of Abhijit Mandal, being the SHO, Tala Police Station, and Sandip Ghosh, being the principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, have not been implicated as accused despite their names being recorded to have been involved in attempting to hush up the matter and destroy evidence," the peition said.
The parents also claimed that relevant witnesses who were present with their daughter on the night of the incident had not been included in the list of 51 witnesses. "Out of 51 witnesses, 44 have been examined. From the purport of the entire examination and investigation, it would be evident that the entire trial is being conducted in a manner to implicate and target only one person, accused Sanjay Roy, to the exclusion of the other suspects. From the post-mortem report itself, it is evident that Sanjay Roy cannot be the only person who committed the offence," it said.
The parents also questioned why call recordings furnished to CBI did not find a place in the chargesheet and why the lady who had called them claiming to be the assistant superintendent (non-medical) of RG Kar had not been made an accused.
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