Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and Abhijit Mondal, the former officer in charge of Tala police station, “wanted to hush up” the rape and murder of the junior doctor at the hospital, the CBI told the Sealdah court on Friday.

Ghosh and Mondal both are in CBI custody.

The two wanted to pass off the August 9 rape and murder as a suicide, the central agency told the court.

The agency also told the court during the day that an “in-depth investigation” was being carried out to find out whether an attempt was made for “harbouring the accused, Sanjay Roy”.

Ghosh and Mondal were presented before the court virtually.

“The extraction of data of DVR and Hard Disk containing the CCTV footage of PS (police station) Tala and mobile phones of both the accused persons has been received from CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory), Kolkata and the same has been scrutinised. It is clear from a number of calls that the accused persons wanted to hush up the incident,” the CBI’s forwarding note to the court said.

Over the last three days, between October 1 and 3, a team of CBI officers met Ghosh and Mondal in jail and questioned them for several hours. The CBI told the court that the two were “found to be non-cooperative” and “gave evasive replies” during interrogation.

In the forwarding note to the court, the CBI said an “in-depth” investigation was being carried out to find out whether there was a conspiracy to protect Roy, the prime accused.

“That the investigation on the aspect of destruction/attempt to destruction of evidence and hushing up the matter of rape and murder into suicide is still going on in full swing and relevant witnesses are being examined. Further, an in-depth investigation is being carried out to collect evidence on the aspect of abetment/conspiracy/harbouring the accused, Sanjay Roy, in the commission of this gruesome rape and murder,” said the forwarding note.

Senior officers of the central agency said they were trying to find out whether the victim’s parents were informed over the phone — by someone claiming to be the deputy superintendent of RG Kar — that their daughter had committed suicide.

The caller was also heard telling the parents that senior hospital officials and police were present at the spot, the investigating agency said.

“It is vital to know who asked the caller to tell the parents that their daughter had committed suicide. The investigation is aimed at finding out who was behind the decision to pass off the murder as suicide,” said a senior CBI officer.