The high court on Friday asked police and the administration of RG Kar
hospital to file separate affidavits on the vandalism at the hospital past midnight on Wednesday.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam held an urgent hearing after representations from petitioners who had earlier sought a court-monitored CBI probe into the rape and murder of a young doctor at the hospital.

On Friday, the bench asked the CBI to assess the damage and file an interim report.

The bench, which included Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, handed the probe into the rape and murder on Tuesday.

“We direct the police authorities as well as the person in charge of the hospital to file two separate affidavits narrating the true state of affairs and all matters incidental and connected there. Let advance copies be served on the learned advocates for the writ petitioners and filed before this court on the next date of hearing,” Chief Justice Sivagnanam said.

“The CBI is at liberty to visit the hospital premises, make an assessment and proceed with the investigation as they deem appropriate. The investigating team as constituted by the CBI shall also file an interim report on the progress of the matter.”

The matter will be heard again on August 21.

As thousands of women walked through the streets of Calcutta to “reclaim the night” on the eve of Independence Day, a large group of men and women armed with lathis, rods and sharp weapons stormed the RG Kar compound and vandalised several departments.

‘Intel failure’

During the hearing, the petitioners’ lawyers said the rampage was planned to destroy evidence at the crime spot. They also pointed to the now-stalled “renovation” job in the chest medicine department.

A lawyer for the state said about “7,000 were over there”.

“They broke open the barricades. The police were trying to resist. They were outnumbered. Fifteen of them, including a deputy commissioner, were injured while trying to resist the mob,” he said.

The submission prompted the chief justice to point to an intelligence failure.

“Normally, even if 100 people gather, there is always intelligence with the police.... If 7,000 people were to gather, it is very hard to believe that the state police intelligence did not know about it.

“If 7,000 people have to come, they can’t come walking. They should have been brought by buses or trucks. It is an absolute failure of the state machinery. You say the policemen were injured. The force could not protect their own. It is a sorry state of affairs,” the chief justice said.

“If police are unable to control a mob, then the law and order situation has failed,” the chief justice said.

He threatened “to shut the hospital down” and transfer all the patients to another government hospital.

Crime scene

Lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, representing the rape-and-murder victim’s parents, said a renovation job in the chest medicinedepartment began soon after the probe was handed to the CBI.

“There was information that they were destroying and demolishing the place of occurrence. When I reached the spot, the doctors and students had become so agitated. The demolition work was then stopped. But a portion had already been demolished,” he said.

State counsel Anitesh Banerjee asserted the crime scene was intact.

“As of now, the PO (place of occurrence) is secured. All these allegations that the PO has been demolished, nothing is correct...” he said.

Kaustav Bagchi, BJP leader and another petitioner, prayed for the deployment of central paramilitary forces in the hospital, considering “the failure of state machinery”.