If the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor at a hospital cannot qualify as “a rarest of rare crime”, what else can, junior doctors asked on Monday, vowing to continue with their protests and the legal fight till the “others involved in the case” are identified and punished.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which was formed after the RG Kar rape and murder on August 9, is exploring the possibility of moving a plea before a higher court for an order to the CBI or some other agency to find out whether more people were involved in the crime.
The junior medics believe that more than one person was involved in the crime
and the sentencing of Sanjay Roy would not bring closure to the case.
“A doctor who was providing care to patients was raped and murdered inside a hospital. We believe this is a ‘rarest of rare’ crime. We cannot criticise the judge but we will criticise the judgment. We do not agree with the judgement,” Asfakulla Naiya, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, said outside the Sealdah court.
“We want all those involved in the crime to be identified. We are discussing the possibility of approaching a higher court seeking a probe into the involvement of others in the crime. We have all along been saying that one person could not have committed the crime,” said Sourav Roy, a junior doctor at Medical College Kolkata.
“We will plead with the higher court to ask the CBI what happened to the charges of larger conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Why is the CBI not saying anything about those charges?” asked Roy.
The CBI had arrested Sandip Ghosh, during whose tenure as the principal of RG Kar the young doctor was raped and murdered, and Abhijit Mandal, the then officer in charge of Tala police station, on charges of evidence tampering and larger conspiracy.
However, both were granted bail as the agency could not file a chargesheet against them within 90 days of their arrest.
A CBI officer said quoting from the chargesheet “the acts/omissions on the part of Abhijit Mondal, the then SHO Tala, and Sandip Ghosh, the then principal of RG Kar MC&H with regard to attempt to hush up the matter, destruction of evidence have surfaced and both of them have been arrested and presently, are in Judicial Custody. Investigation against them on the aspect of larger conspiracy including in-depth investigation on the aspect of involvement of others, if any, in the commission of crime or its abetment is in progress....”
Aniket Mahata, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar and a prominent face of the junior doctors’ protests, told Metro that if lawyers advised the junior doctors’ front against approaching a higher court, they would support the slain doctor’s parents in their legal battles.
“We will also continue our protests to keep up the pressure on the CBI and the state government till the other culprits are identified and punished,” he said.
Utpal Bandyopadhyay, a senior doctor and a member of the Joint Platform of Doctors, said the CBI had failed to prove that the rape and murder was a “rarest of rare” crime.
“The court’s pronouncement that it is not a rarest of rare crime reflects the CBI’s failure. Also, why is the CBI delaying filing the supplementary chargesheet?” asked Bandyopadhyay.
A CBI officer had said after the chargesheet was filed in October that they would follow it up with “supplementary chargesheets over the next few months”. No supplementary chargesheet has yet been filed.