The CBI on Saturday night arrested Abhijit Mondal, the officer-in-charge of Tala police station, for allegedly tampering with evidence and misleading investigators during the probe into the rape and murder of the RG Kar doctor.
The central agency also arrested Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the medical college and hospital, for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder case. Ghosh is already in jail custody following his arrest in a separate case of alleged financial irregularities at the state-run facility.
The CBI’s anti-corruption branch arrested Ghosh on September 2 along with three of his associates. On Saturday, he was “shown arrested” in the rape and murder case as well.
“The officer-in-charge of Tala police station has been arrested for misleading officers while investigating the case of rape and murder of the junior doctor and tampering with evidence at the scene of the crime. We will produce him before a CBI court and seek his custody,” said a CBI officer.
There was no official communique from the central investigating agency till late in the night.
Sources said Mondal had continued to evade questions on how so many outsiders reached the scene of crime inside the seminar room of the chest medicine department on the third floor of the emergency building where the doctor was found dead on the morning of August 9.
Junior Doctor's coming out from Kalighat the house of Mamata Banerjee on Saturday night (14.09.2024). The Telegraph picture by Bishwarup Dutta
There were also allegedly no clear answers on why the FIR into the case was drawn up late after then principal Ghosh called Mondal at 10.10am to inform him about the incident.
“The medical college and hospital is under his jurisdiction and as an officer-in-charge, he can’t deny his accountability if a crowd of outsiders are found to have gathered at the crime scene,” the senior CBI officer said.
An officer of the 1996 batch of Kolkata Police, Mondal joined Tala police station about a year ago. He had reached the seminar hall along with other officers and informed his superior officers, sources in Kolkata Police said.
Before his arrest on Saturday, Mondal appeared for interrogation on at least eight occasions before the investigating team of the CBI at its office in Salt Lake’s CGO Complex.
The sources in the CBI said summons was sent to him a few days ago but Mondal had then said he was indisposed and admitted to a private hospital.
On Saturday, Mondal turned up at the CGO Complex around 3.10pm, responding to a summons from the central agency. He was not in his uniform and arrived in his official SUV, designated for the officer-in-charge of a police station under Kolkata Police.
Two other police personnel — including the officer who was on duty on the morning of August 9 and the one who was in charge of the police station’s storeroom or malkhana — accompanied Mondal.
After nearly seven hours of questioning by a team that had among its members an officer of the rank of joint director and a deputy inspector-general of police, the CBI arrested Mondal.
On his way out of the CGO Complex for the mandatory medical checkup post his arrest, Mondal, flanked by CBI personnel, said he was not responsible for tampering with evidence.
Asked if he was responsible, Mondal muttered “no” and shook his head vigorously while boarding the vehicle that would take him to a state-run hospital in Salt Lake.
Ghosh and Mondal are the first two arrests by the CBI since taking over the investigation of the case of rape and murder of the junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The central agency took over the probe on August 14 following an order by Calcutta High Court.
Kolkata Police had handed over to the CBI civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, who was arrested on August 10 for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder.