A year later, too many questions remain unanswered in RG Kar rape-murder case

Kolkata : The first anniversary of the ghastly rape-murder of a woman doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was observed on August 9; however, many crucial questions remain unanswered even after a year.

Those who have been sustaining their struggle in their quest for justice in this case, including the victim’s parents, members of the civil society, intellectuals, and most importantly, the representatives from the medical fraternity, have started demanding answers to these unanswered questions.

However, there is a difference. After the body of the victim, a woman doctor, was recovered from within the hospital premises in the morning of August 9 last year, the targets of their questions were the West Bengal administration and Kolkata Police, who were held accountable for carrying out a shoddy initial investigation allegedly to shield the masterminds behind that “larger conspiracy”.

But later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) ended up just giving a seal to Kolkata Police’s findings that civic volunteer Sanjay Roy was the sole convict in the crime. After being unable to track the masterminds behind the “larger conspiracy”, the investigation credibility of the Central agency sleuths is now being questioned.

The first unanswered question being raised by the victim’s parents is — why the CBI, since the beginning, had been carrying out the investigation exactly on the Kolkata Police’s theory that Sanjay Roy was the sole accused. Roy has been convicted and sentenced in the case.

“Since the beginning, the only attempt on the part of the CBI sleuths was to re-establish the theory of the Kolkata Police, that the crime was just a case of rape and murder and not a case of gang-rape and murder. We have been raising this point since the beginning. But the CBI investigation officials in Kolkata had been constantly ignoring our contentions,” the victim’s father said.

The second unanswered question is — why, even after a year, the CBI has failed to file a supplementary charge sheet against former R.G. Kar Principal Sandeep Ghosh and former SHO of Tala Police station Avijit Mondal. Both were arrested by the CBI on charges of tampering with evidence during the initial investigation done by the Kolkata Police.

Both Ghosh and Mondal got default bail as the CBI failed to file a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest.

The third question that is being raised is — why the CBI appointed one of its Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, Sampat Meena, to head the investigation, who was the IPS batch-mate of the former Kolkata Police Commissioner and the current additional director general of the special task force of West Bengal Police, Vineet Kumar Goyal.

To recall, Goyal was the city police chief when the ghastly crime took place in August last year, and the initial investigation into the matter by the special investigation also started under his leadership. However, following a massive public uproar, Goyal was removed from the position of the city police chief. Later, CBI took over the investigation following an order from the Calcutta High Court.

The victims’ parents have also informed a trial court in Kolkata last month that the CBI probe in the matter might not be a neutral one, considering that Meena and Goyal were batchmates.

On August 9, the first anniversary date of the tragedy, even the BJP’s former national vice-president and the party’s former state chief in the state, Dilip Ghosh, claimed that the grievances of the parents against the CBI over the latter’s progress in the investigation were quite justified.

Ghosh even went to the extent of demanding a fresh probe since the beginning of the matter, which should be court-monitored and by a new investigating team.

On the sad occasion of the 1st anniversary of the tragedy, IANS spoke to some others from different fields, who have been carrying out their protest on the streets since August last year to date. All of them, like the victim’s parents, expressed displeasure over CBI’s progress in the investigation into the matter.

Manas Gumta, the former general secretary of the Association of Health Service Doctors (AHSD), West Bengal, was one of the prominent faces of doctors who were at the forefront of protests that rocked West Bengal last year.

Speaking to Media, Gumta said several factors have been addressed neither by the state police nor by the CBI.

“We believe that more than one person was involved in the incident, and the investigation has to find out who these people are. Why was the crime scene left unprotected following the incident? Why were so many people allowed there? Why was the wall of the adjoining washroom destroyed? Why was the post-mortem conducted in haste? Whom the state government is trying to protect? Why did the government make so many efforts to crush the doctors’ protest? Why has the CBI failed to find the persons who are involved in the nexus? There are so many questions that have not been answered,” he said.

Aniket Mahato, one of the prominent faces of the agitation by junior doctors, told IANS that the state government needs to ensure such incidents are not repeated anymore. “The crime scene was disturbed following the incident. Was evidence being destroyed? If yes, then at whose instruction? There have been numerous allegations against the hospital authorities of various irregularities. Why could the investigation not unearth the truth regarding this? One year has passed since the incident. Most importantly, what has CBI achieved after investigating the matter for a year?” questioned Mahato..

Actress and social activist, Ushashi Chakraborty, also a leading face in the protest movement, stressed that sustained mass movements are still necessary to ensure that the investigating agencies probe properly and justice is delivered.