Three weeks have passed since the 31-year-old doctor was found raped and murdered in a seminar hall at RG Kar hospital but there has been no fresh breakthrough in the probe.
Instead, what emerged on Thursday were three audio clips on how the hospital broke the news of the death to her family on August 9.
In the first clip, a woman’s voice is heard informing the doctor’s parents that she was ill and that they should come to the hospital immediately. In the second clip, the woman who introduces herself as the “assistant super” (superintendent) is heard telling the doctor’s parents that their daughter was in a very serious condition and that they were taking her to the Emergency.
In the third, she is heard saying that the doctor “possibly committed suicide” and that she was dead.
The clips suggested a disconcerting lack of sensitivity on the part of the hospital in conveying information about a grave incident to the doctor’s parents. The mix up of words and events can be construed as gross inefficiency and some may also see in it a possible effort to suppress actual events.
Reacting to the video clips that were in wide circulation on Thursday, deputy commissioner of police (central) Indira Mukherjee, who was a member of the special investigation team that was probing the rape and murder before the CBI took charge, said the contents substantiated what the police had said all along.
“The police never informed the family that the victim had committed suicide,” Mukherjee said.
The doctor’s parents on Thursday told some journalists that when they were allowed to see their daughter’s body, they saw her covered in a green cloth.
The police clarified the confusion over the colour of the cover.
“The victim’s body was covered in a blue cloth. Our police videographers reached the spot at 12.25pm and we have videography of the body in phases. Videography was done during the inquest, during the forensic examination. According to our records, the colour of the cover on her was blue,” Mukherjee said.
Mukherjee said a piece of red cloth was found and that, too, has been seized. “But the body was not covered with the red cloth. Our videographed records and photographs are part of the case diary which has been handed to the CBI. For further details they, too, can be contacted,” she said.
Many who have been demanding justice since the brutal rape and murder shared their disappointment on why the CBI did not report any progress or make a fresh arrest.
CBI officers said they were sticking “only to facts” to ensure that their actions or alleged inaction could not be challenged in court.
The CBI on Thursday conducted polygraph tests on two security guards who were posted on the third floor of the Emergency Building on the night of August 8.