Ex-Panihati MLA, ex-councillor remanded in judicial custody in RG Kar victim cremation case
Times of India | 15 August 2026
Kolkata: Hours after former Panihati Trinamool MLA Nirmal Ghosh was arrested from Odisha on Thursday morning over alleged irregularities in the cremation of the RG Kar rape-murder victim, police arrested another FIR-named accused, the victim’s neighbour Sanjib Mukherjee, late on Thursday night. Both of them have remanded in fourteen days’ judicial custody. Mukherjee was remanded in police custody for seven days in a separate extortion case.
Police sources said Mukherjee, a former Panihati Municipality councillor and the victim’s “neighbouring uncle”, was arrested from his residence at Natagarh in Sodepur around 11.30 pm after interrogation. Police have launched a manhunt for former Panihati civic chairman Somnath Dey, another accused named in the FIR.
The arrests came days after CM Suvendu Adhikari ordered a fresh probe into alleged irregularities in the cremation of the 31-year-old second-year PGT doctor at Panihati crematorium.
On Friday, Adhikari praised Barrackpore Police commissioner Amit Kumar Singh and his team for arresting two accused, including Ghosh. Speaking at a football tournament in his Bhowanipore constituency, he said, “The accused were arrested from neighbouring states and the remaining absconding accused would be arrested soon. TMC govt had earlier shielded cops suspected of involvement in the case.”
In his complaint, the victim’s father alleged that his daughter’s body was virtually “snatched away” and cremated in haste under the leadership of Ghosh, Dey and Mukherjee to destroy evidence. He alleged the family’s request for a second post-mortem was rejected and relatives were not allowed to see the body for the last time or perform basic rituals.
He further alleged that the cremation certificate was signed by Trinamool functionaries instead of family members and described the process as a “well-planned conspiracy” to destroy evidence.
Police said Ghosh and Mukherjee were booked under nine BNS sections, including criminal conspiracy, tampering with evidence, wrongful restraint, common intention and framing an incorrect record. Cops said Ghosh was also booked in separate cases involving extortion, illegal firearms and forcible possession of a lottery ticket carrying a Rs 1-crore prize.
“Both, Ghosh and Mukherjee, in connection with alleged irregularities surrounding the cremation of the RG Kar rape-and-murder victim, were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by Monika Saha Chatterjee, ACJM, Barrackpore. Ghosh was remanded in police custody for eight days in a separate case involving the alleged snatching of a lottery ticket worth Rs 1 crore from its rightful winner, car driver Partha Sarkar. Mukherjee was remanded in police custody for seven days in an extortion case,” Assistant Public Prosecutor Jadunath Ghosh told TOI.
The victim’s mother, Ratna Debnath, now BJP MLA from Panihati, said: “If there had been such a CM and such a health minister five years ago, no one could have taken my daughter away from me,” she said.