The city police on Monday clarified that the seminar hall in the Emergency Building of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where the young doctor’s body was found on August 9 was 51ft long and 32ft wide and that 40ft from the place where the body was found had been cordoned off, denying allegations that the cops had not cordoned off the area properly.

The police were responding to a video purportedly showing almost a dozen people, including cops, in the seminar hall after the body was found. It gave the impression that the crime scene had been trampled by many outsiders.

“A video that was being circulated on social media and shown on several television channels showed the remaining 11ft where hospital authorities, medical students, junior doctors and the girl’s family members, including her parents, were present,” deputy commissioner, central, Kolkata Police, Indira Mukherjee, said at a news conference at Lalbazar.

She also said that nobody, barring a few select personnel from Kolkata Police and the victim’s parents, was granted access inside the cordoned-off section of the hall.

Last Thursday, during a hearing on the RG Kar incident at the Supreme Court, the solicitor general, who was representing the CBI, said the agency had received an “altered crime scene”.

The state’s counsel, Kapil Sibal, refuted the allegation and said “everything was videographed”.

The video that was widely circulated on social media on Monday showed some senior officials of RG Kar inside the seminar hall, along with cops. The presence of the cops is proof that the recording was made after the police had arrived.

Many have questioned whether the police had done enough to properly cordon off the scene of crime.

According to a timeline earlier shared by the police, the cops were informed about the doctor’s death at 10.10am and the crime scene was secured at 10.30am after officers from Tala police station reached the spot.

A senior officer said there was only one operational entry-exit door in the hall. The rest were closed. The body was found in the farthest corner of the room.

Deputy commissioner Mukherjee, who was a member of the Special Investigation Team that probed the rape and murder till Calcutta High Court handed the inquiry to the CBI, said: “The seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital measures 51X32ft. Police personnel present there had cordoned off an area measuring 40ft from where the body was found. White hospital curtains were used to cordon the area and no unauthorised person was allowed inside. The video that has gone viral shows footage from the remaining 11ft that was not under police cordon.”

Mukherjee said many persons were present in the 11ft space, including junior doctors, family members of the victim, cops, hospital officials, doctors and at least one lawyer for the hospital.

Another senior officer said the victim’s parents had arrived at the hospital at noon but the police came to know about their arrival only at 1pm. The officer said the moment they learned about the parents’ arrival, the parents were allowed inside the seminar room.

The family had alleged a long wait to see their daughter’s body.

Mukherjee said: “We had called the emergency medical officer of the hospital who was in the Emergency section… and even he was asked to sit in this 11ft space.”

“Several young doctors and postgraduate trainees… were also there. A section of the students wrote their list of demands here. Their demands kept changing from time to time,” said Mukherjee.

According to her, access to the cordoned-off section was only given to the then investigating officer, forensic officials, people engaged in shifting the body, the victim’s parents, police photographers and videographers. No unauthorised entry was allowed, she said.