The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday demanded that the CBI clear all doubts regarding the investigation into the rape and murder of the trainee doctor and submit an update on its progress in solving the case to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the case on Thursday, but according to a Wednesday evening update, it will be postponed.
Through Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee’s party posed four specific questions for the central agency, which has been investigating the crime that sent shockwaves across the nation.
It was clear from the questions that the TMC leadership wanted to mount pressure on the CBI for clarity over the probe at a time when “misinformation and disinformation” on social media created a public perception against the government.
Trinamool’s Kunal Ghosh — widely deemed close to Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee — posted on X in the morning a statement with the questions.
“Let the CBI clarify in court tomorrow: 1) Was Sanjay (Rai), caught by KP (Kolkata Police) the lone rapist and murderer, or was there someone else? 2) Was this an isolated, ugly incident, or was it done by a nexus, with other motives?” asked Ghosh.
The CBI took over the investigation following a directive from Calcutta High Court.
“3) If there were attempts at evidence tampering, what are their appropriate indications? 4) Those involved in that tampering, or those in charge of the scene of the crime, what action would be taken against them?” he added in the post, in Bengali.
Sources in Trinamool said the statement was with the obvious intent to mount pressure on the CBI ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, which is likely to determine the next course of action by the ruling dispensation. The TMC government has been under tremendous pressure over the junior doctor’s rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 and the alleged mishandling of the case.
“We are going to shout from the rooftops about the failures of the central agency in handling the probe, which was shifted from Kolkata Police by Calcutta High Court,” said a TMC leader, adding that there were credible inputs that the CBI did not find anything over and above what the police had found in the probe.
“Therefore, the CBI will try to place the blame on the state’s shoulders, accusing our dispensation here of having tampered with the evidence and the scene of the crime to conceal the so-
called real truth. That is rubbish,” he added.
The CBI is expected to submit its report on the case to the Supreme Court during the next hearing. “Every point I raised has to be cleared by the CBI before the Supreme Court,” said Ghosh later. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
He has said the more
delay there is, the more the emotions of the protesting citizens will be.
According to Ghosh, all arrests made by the CBI were in connection with alleged corruption at the state-run medical college and hospital, with no apparent links to the rape and murder of the
junior doctor.
“Besides, political parties will keep trying further to play their vulture-esque politics, to optimise gains from this grave human tragedy and to create anarchy. They have been doing everything within their reach to fish in the waters muddied by the fallout of the tragedy. That should simply not be allowed to happen,” added Ghosh, underscoring that the arrest of RG Kar’s now-removed principal Sandip Ghosh was concerning corruption allegations.
“What the CBI has achieved so far in solving the fundamental rape and murder case, an update of that before the court is necessary.”
