The ‘leaks’ in the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital rape-murder case continue.

On Thursday, a letter surfaced purportedly linking Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the medical college, to the renovation work on the same floor where the trainee doctor’s body was found.

The renovation had raised questions about possible destruction of evidence. Even the Calcutta high court had raised questions about it, asking who had ordered it.

The purported letter that surfaced on Thursday is dated August 10, 2024, a day after the rape-murder came to light and before the high court transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The letter, a photograph of which was sent to The Telegraph Online by a source at RG Kar, is addressed to the “Executive Engineer, PWD Civil, RGKMC&H.”

The subject line is: "Repair/Renovation/Reconstruction of on-duty Doctors' Rooms along with separate attached toilets in all departments of RGKMC&H on urgent basis.”

The letter contradicts earlier statements from hospital authorities, who had at different times claimed different things – that the construction work had been going on for a long time, that it was ordered before the incident, and that it was done after doctors pointed out a lack of facilities when the rape-murder came to light.

The letter ends with the line: "Please do the needful immediately."

Whether the 31–year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered in the seminar hall where her body was found has not yet been established conclusively with evidence. There is widespread suspicion that the crime may have happened elsewhere in the hospital. Hence, the renovation work has aroused intense scrutiny. The question that has reverberated is, how could construction be allowed in the same floor where a doctor was found raped and murdered and the investigation had not concluded.

The victim’s parents have alleged that the place where their daughter’s body was found seemed too clean for a place where such a violent crime occurred.

This suspicion was also voiced to The Telegraph Online earlier by a retired IPS officer who had pointed out several suspicious points in the rape-murder probe.

The Telegraph Online Sources

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The two Trinamul ministers, Bratya Basu and Sashi Panja, who addressed a media conference on Thursday were asked by a reporter about the letter that has surfaced.

The ministers did not answer the question.

Instead, when another journalist pointed out that CBI sources had pointed to evidence being destroyed, the state education minister had questioned the authenticity of the second reporter’s statement.

“You can be CBI’s source or you may have sources in the CBI, but it is the probe agency that has to come forward and confirm yes, evidence has been tampered with,” Basu said.

“Why aren’t they saying so? Ask these questions to the CBI. It is not possible for us to know CBI’s Mann ki Baat. I also want to know what evidence has been tampered with. It is a very serious allegation. I want to know why the CBI has not released any details of it yet,” the minister added.