BJP lawmaker from Asansol South Agnimitra Paul on Monday told The Telegraph Online that they wanted to take the parents of the doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to Raj Bhawan to seek the governor’s intervention for a second autopsy but were stopped by the cops at Tala police station.
“My party colleague Kaustuv Bagchi called me up and asked me to rush to the Tala police station where the victim’s parents were. I was surprised,” Paul said.
“I had seen the hearse leave the hospital and wondered why the parents were not accompanying her. I had been trying to convince the parents to press for a second post-mortem, but the cops and some Trinamul leaders kept them surrounded and wouldn’t allow us to speak with them,” she alleged.
Asansol South MLA said that on the evening of August 9, around 5.30 pm, she had reached RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where another BJP leader, Sajal Ghosh, was present. Both of them decided to look for the parents of the victim.
“When we called the victim’s father he said he was at the Tala police station, though her mother was still at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. We could not find her at or near the seminar hall. Later, someone took us to the fourth floor of another building where she was waiting,” Paul said.
When she tried to approach the victim’s mother and requested her to seek a second post-mortem, a middle-aged man stopped her and questioned who she was, Paul said.
Agnimitra Paul protesting outside Tala police station on August 9, 2024. Sourced by the correspondent
“When I asked him to identify himself, he said he was a member of the family and said the family trusted the state government. But the victim’s mother later told me he was a local councillor,” Paul said.
“While we were trying to talk to her and convince her to demand a second post-mortem, this man and some cops took the victim’s mother to the ground floor. By the time we reached, the hearse had already left and we could not see the mother anywhere.”
On receiving a call from another party colleague who informed her that the mother had been brought to the Tala police station, Paul left the hospital.
“It was already past 6 pm and the post-mortem was under way. I approached the DC North Abhishek Gupta [who was transferred last week] but he ignored me. We approached the parents and told them we should go to the Raj Bhawan and request the governor to stop the cremation and order a second post-mortem,” Paul said.
Agnimitra Paul inside the victim's car waiting to take the parents to Raj Bhawan on the evening of August 9 Sourced by the correspondent
According to the BJP MLA, the moment they sat inside the car belonging to the family, some cops came out from the Tala police station and stopped the vehicle. What followed next was an altercation between the two sides.
“The parents were distraught and confused about what to do,” Paul said. “We tried our best to help them agree to a second post-mortem but the police pressure was too much. The cops repeatedly told them that the hearse had reached their residence and they should rush. Finally they relented. We squatted in front of the car, and the cops almost ran over us.
“When we tried to follow them, a prison van blocked our vehicle and a mob surrounded us. Somehow, we managed to escape,” Paul said.
The footprint of Trinamul’s Panihati unit has been all over the case since the day of the incident. The local MLA Nirmal Ghosh, who was summoned for questioning by the CBI at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake on Monday, was at the hospital and at the Panihati crematorium overseeing the process.
Dr Apurba Biswas, one of the forensic experts who performed the post-mortem, was summoned for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday. Answering questions to the media, Biswas claimed they were under pressure to conduct the post-mortem in a hurry.
“Someone who introduced himself as uncle, an ex-councilor, had threatened me that if there was any delay in the post mortem there would be a bloodbath. The process was delayed because of some paperwork. He was not related to the family, someone from outside,” Biswas had said.
The certificate issued at the crematorium bears the signature of this ex-councillor and not that of the victim’s father or any other family member. This ex-councillor, first elected on a CPM ticket, was in the Panihati Municipality till 2013. In 2018 he moved to the Trinamul.
Calls made to both the ex-councillor and Ghosh, who was seen with the family, went unanswered.
The three-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had raised questions on why a crowd was allowed to assemble at the scene of crime, why the hospital authorities did not lodge the FIR and how the post-mortem could be conducted before the FIR was lodged.
