The parents of the RG Kar rape-and-murder victim moved Calcutta High Court on Thursday expressing “dissatisfaction” at the CBI probe and seeking a re-investigation of the case.
“We are not satisfied with the way the CBI is conducting the investigation. We want a re-investigation,” the father of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 told The Telegraph on Thursday.
Based on the family’s petition seeking a re-investigation, the court told the lawyer representing the CBI to ask the agency whether it could file a status report of the probe during the next hearing or a fortnight later. The next hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday.
The petition contained a list of grievances of the family about the way the central agency is investigating the rape and murder.
Sources close to the family said they are dissatisfied for several reasons.
“Four junior doctors were with the victim for some time on the night of the rape and murder. Why only two of them were made to depose during the trial and the other two left out? The family is not happy about it,” said a source close to the victim’s family.
The petition filed by the parents asked why the assistant superintendent (non-medical) of RG Kar hospital who called the family and reportedly said the young doctor had committed suicide was not made an accused in the case. They also want to know on whose instruction the assistant superintendent told the family that the victim had committed suicide.
The family raised further questions as to why the parents were “not allowed to see their daughter’s body immediately” and why it was “hurriedly cremated”.
The petition mentioned: “No investigation with regard to 151gm fluid as mentioned in the PM report.”
It said: “Your petitioners state that the trial of the entire case is being proceeded in an expeditious manner with the available records…. Unless further investigation is directed and is conducted under the supervision of this Hon”ble Court, the other suspects shall not come within the net and the entire trial shall be vitiated due to unwarranted and non-conclusive evidences.”
The petition expressed dissatisfaction over what it says failure of the CBI to name former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and former Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mandal in the chargesheet.
It was on Ghosh’s watch that the young doctor was raped and murdered. Mandal was then the OC of the local Tala police station. Both were arrested and granted bail in the rape and murder case as the CBI has not filed any chargesheet against them.
The family had first moved the high court three days after the rape and murder seeking a CBI inquiry, following which the court took away the investigation from Kolkata Police and handed it to the central agency.
The CBI chargesheet names only one accused, Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer who was arrested by Kolkata Police.
The trial, being held at the Sealdah court, started around three months after the incident. The probe and the progress of the trial are being monitored by the Supreme Court.
The parents of the deceased had on December 10 expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court’s decision to fix the next hearing after around three-and-a-half months.
The apex court had said that if any party was dissatisfied with the progress of the trial, they could move court requesting an early date.
The petition filed by the parents on Thursday mentioned this “liberty” to move court.