Former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and former Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mandal were granted bail on Friday following the CBI’s failure to file a chargesheet within 90 days of their arrest in connection with the rape and murder of a junior doctor.
The CBI had accused the duo of destroying evidence and spoken of a larger conspiracy. On the 90th day of the arrests, the central agency could not produce any evidence to back the claims.
The agency submitted before the CBI court that it was not filing any supplementary chargesheet against the two “for the time being”. Lawyers representing Ghosh and Mandal submitted bail pleas citing their 90-day custody without a chargesheet.
Ghosh, chargesheeted in a corruption case too, will remain in judicial remand.
The court granted them bail against a bond of ₹2,000 each.
Ghosh, also chargesheeted in a case related to the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar, would continue to be in judicial remand.
Mandal, not accused in any other case, was set free on Friday evening. His family and colleagues from Kolkata Police greeted him outside the court.
The court order said: “The public prosecutor of the CBI has laid down that the CBI is not going to file any prayer of remand and today is the 90th day of both the accused being in custody and the CBI is not going to file the chargesheet for the time being though an investigation is going on regarding the involvement of both the accused in the commission of crime.”
It added: “It is found from the record that both accused have been in custody since 15/09/2024 and till now no chargesheet has been filed against both of these accused, though a chargesheet has already been filed against another accused namely Sanjay Roy and the trial against the accused namely Sanjay Roy is going on before the Court of Ld ADJ-I, Sealdah.
“The provision of Section 187 of the BNSS has given a statutory right to the accused to be released on bail if no chargesheet is filed within 60 days or 90 days depending on the factum of alleged provision.
“In this case, no chargesheet has been filed against the accused namely Abhijit Mandal and Sandip Ghosh till today and today is the 90th day of them being in custody.”
According to the law, the CBI can still file a supplementary chargesheet against the two.
The CBI had earlier made submissions about the alleged involvement of Ghosh and Mandal in the “destruction of evidence” and how they had exchanged phone calls on the day the junior doctor’s body was found. The central agency had also objected to their bail pleas, claiming it had evidence against the duo.
On Friday, the CBI lawyer made a brief submission saying the agency would not file any supplementary chargesheet without citing any reason.
The victim’s mother expressed disappointment and accused the CBI of not doing its job properly.
“We are extremely disappointed. The CBI could not file a chargesheet within 90 days. They did not do their work properly. We will seek legal recourse,” she said.
