RG Kar case: No gang-rape proof in medical report, CBI tells Calcutta high court; judge flags missing injury details in postmortem report
Times of India | 29 March 2025
The Calcutta High Court demands detailed updates and case assessments to understand the investigation delays. KOLKATA: Medical reports in last Aug's RG Kar rape-murder of a junior doctor had only established rape, not gang rape, CBI told Calcutta High Court on Friday. The agency also said that it was only probing whether there was any attempt to hush up the incident, conceding that it could not immediately provide a timeline about when it would be able to wrap up the investigation.
CBI counsel Rajdeep Majumder told Justice Tirthankar Ghosh that the probe was focused on two angles: one, the larger conspiracy after the incident; and the destruction of evidence. The investigation was specific to "the act and actions relating to the destruction of evidence pursuant to the incident," Majumder said .
When the judge asked CBI to tell when it could complete the investigation, the agency could not provide one. "It is a voluminous document," Majumder said. "Right now, we cannot commit to you that it will take this much time."
Justice Ghosh asked CBI to produce on April 23 the case diary handed over to them by Kolkata Police, and provide a list of people the agency had examined. "I want to assess why this (further investigation) is taking time," the judge said. "You have submitted that you cannot give a timeline, which means you must be stuck somewhere.... They (CBI) have some problems, as a court of law I am trying to learn from them."
The HC will take up the case again on April 23.
'Two injuries not noted in PM report'
The court asked whether DNA profiling was done only of the accused, or of other persons as well. CBI replied that it was done on only the accused. "No other male DNA was found in the samples," it said.
CBI had earlier submitted a status report in a sealed cover. On Friday, Justice Ghosh, after perusing this, asked about the difference between the inquest and autopsy report, and asked CBI to answer this in next hearing. The judge said, "In two places, injuries have not been noted in the postmortem report, which was available in inquest. One was in the belly and right-hand ring finger." Neither of these injuries was reflected in postmortem report, the judge added.
The HC hearing is related to a petition filed by the victim's parents for an HC-monitored CBI probe. Justice Ghosh said he will hear the state's arguments on maintainability and the victim's family in next hearing. Senior counsel appearing for the state, Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, said while the state did not object to the probe into an alleged cover-up, the question of law would be whether the court could revive a concluded probe.
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