‘Contaminated’ sample: For parents, probe raises more questions a yr later
Times of India | 9 August 2025
Kolkata: A year into the investigation, the probe into the RG Kar Medical College rape-murder raises more questions than it answers. While the lawyers of the victim's parents alleged gaps in the investigation, the CBI found Sanjay Roy to be the only one involved in the rape and murder of the 31-year-old PGT. A DNA test report, lawyers of the victim's parents alleged, points to the presence of another person in the crime. After it took over the case on Aug 13, 2024, the CBI submitted the first charge sheet after 58 days and named civic volunteer Roy as the sole perpetrator in the rape-murder. However, the agency, which is also probing the larger conspiracy in connection to the case, is yet to file the charge sheet against former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and ex-Tala police station OC Abhijit Mandal.
"The biggest question is about the presence of another person during the rape and murder of the victim. The DNA test report indicates that a third person was present. The CBI has argued that the DNA test sample was contaminated. But that does not rule out the presence of a third person during the crime," said Phiroze Edulji, the lawyer for the parents of the victim. The CBI counsel, in the Supreme Court on Sept 9 last year, also said that who collected the samples is "relevant".
"The MIMB report has nowhere mentioned that the crime was committed by a single person. Moreover, those who saw her for the last time are yet to be questioned separately by the CBI," said Amartya De, another lawyer of the parents.
Questions were also raised about the place of occurrence after the CFSL report surfaced. A total of five injury marks were found on Roy's body. The MIMB report concluded that those "blunt force injuries" were consistent with the marks of resistance or struggle by the victim. "Surprisingly, the CFSL report mentioned that the evidence of possible struggle shown by the victim with the assailant was missing on the mattress, on the dais and areas nearby," De said.
Questions were also raised about a closed room on the seventh floor of the orthopaedic department. Nurses claimed that the agency found some material inside the room, and later the agency sealed it. In the meantime, parents of the victim approached the court alleging involvement of more people. The SC cleared the decks for the single bench of Calcutta High Court to hear the parents' petition.
"Investigators, whether the CBI or Kolkata Police, could not show a single piece of evidence implicating Ghosh in both cases. The CBI and ED both conducted searches at Ghosh's residence, and not a single penny could be traced back to him," said Zohaib Rauf, lawyer of Sandip Ghosh.