RG Kar Rape-Murder Case: CBI Must Highlight Evidence Tampering To Strengthen Stance Against Critics

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has faced strong criticism from various quarters for naming only one individual—civic policeman Sanjay Roy—as the suspect in the horrific rape-murder of a postgraduate intern at RG Kar Medical College Hospital in the early hours of 9 August. 

Agitating doctors and the general public have protested against the CBI’s failure to identify any other perpetrator of the dreadful crime that shocked and outraged not only Bengal but also the rest of the country. 

At the heart of these protests is a strong belief that the crime could not have been committed by only one person. 

Doctors and forensic experts have stated that the nature of the victim's injuries and the manner of her death clearly indicate that the crime could not have been committed by just one person, especially someone like Sanjay Roy, who is reportedly not physically strong. 

Two, or possibly three, persons would have committed the crime or at least helped Roy physically commit it. 

The highly suspicious conduct of policemen and hospital authorities after the victim's body was discovered has further bolstered the widespread belief that the crime involved more than one person. 

As is well-known, the police made no attempts to secure the crime scene and prevent its contamination and instead allowed many people to walk into the seminar room where the crime was committed. As a result, a lot of evidence could have been destroyed. 

The hospital authorities, led by the now disgraced and dismissed principal Sandip Ghosh, also allegedly attempted to cover up the crime. They informed the victim’s family that she had committed suicide, then kept her parents waiting for hours to see the body, and did not lodge any FIR with the police as they should have. The FIR was lodged more than 14 hours after the crime. 

Ghosh also summoned his cronies—many of them junior doctors from other hospitals—to the crime scene. 

The autopsy on the body was conducted after dusk in violation of norms and the parents of the victim were allegedly forced to cremate the body immediately after the autopsy. Trinamool Congress (TMC) functionaries were reportedly roped in to get the body cremated in double-quick time. 

Usually, in such sensitive rape-murder cases, the body of the victim is preserved for a second autopsy. It was obvious that the RG Kar authorities, the police and the TMC were in a tearing hurry to cremate the body. 

The Kolkata Police which started investigating the crime rather belatedly arrested civic cop Sanjay Roy the next day (10 August). On 13 August, the Calcutta High Court handed the investigation to the CBI. 

The CBI filed the first chargesheet against Roy on 7 October and the trial court framed charges against him on Monday (4 November). Daily in-camera trials will start next Monday (11 November). 

The CBI also arrested Sandip Ghosh, the former Principal of RG Kar, and Kolkata Police officer Abhijit Mondal, the officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station, on September 14 for tampering with and destroying evidence, as well as misleading the probe. Chargesheets against the two are yet to be framed. 

The CBI has also questioned and is investigating many others, including TMC Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Sudipto Roy. 

However, the CBI’s failure to identify anyone other than civic cop Sanjay Roy as involved in the crime has earned it considerable flak. 

Agitating doctors and citizens’ groups have held demonstrations and sit-in protests outside the CBI office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area. They are protesting the agency’s failure to arrest anyone other than Roy in connection with the crime. 

The TMC has also mocked the CBI regarding this issue. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh and other party members have pointed out that aside from Roy, who the Kolkata Police arrested within 24 hours of the crime, the CBI has not identified the involvement of anyone else. 

Ghosh and his party colleagues assert that this proves the Kolkata Police investigations were going in the right direction and the CBI has not been able to unearth any fresh evidence in the case. 

What The CBI Needs To Do

The CBI should not remain silent and simply accept such criticism, particularly when it is unfounded and involves twisting or subverting the facts. 

The CBI should publicly disclose the charges against Sandip Ghosh and Abhijit Mondal. It must frame the chargesheet against these two accused individuals and not only make it public but also emphasise how Ghosh and Mondal destroyed evidence. 

The CBI should also emphasise Ghosh’s close ties to the top leadership of the TMC and that Mondal may have acted independently in tampering with evidence, without direct instructions from his superiors. 

The CBI should publicly acknowledge that its investigation into the crime has been hindered by the deliberate destruction of evidence by Ghosh, Mondal, and others. Had this destruction not occurred, the CBI may have been able to uncover the involvement of additional suspects, as is widely suspected, in the rape-murder. 

This is the only way to turn the tables on its critics and the TMC which is happily lending its voice to criticism of the central probe agency. 

Not just this, the CBI should also ask the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court for permission to take the arrested—Sanjay Roy, Sandip Ghosh and Abhijit Mondal—out of Bengal for their custodial interrogation. 

The CBI has questioned all three extensively during their time in custody and while in judicial detention. However, none have broken down under questioning and have reportedly misled the investigation, providing evasive responses and failing to cooperate with the CBI. 

The reason behind their lack of cooperation is that the three, particularly Ghosh and Mondal, feel secure while in Bengal. Since prisons are under the jurisdiction of the state government, they understand they cannot face coercive interrogation from the CBI. 

They will only crack and reveal the truth if they are taken outside the state and incarcerated in a facility where the CBI can operate freely. 

A case in point is the relocation of TMC strongman Anubrata Mondal, the prime accused in the multi-crore cattle smuggling scam, out of Bengal with the court’s permission for custodial interrogation. Mondal was housed in Delhi’s Tihar jail for several months, where he reportedly broke under sustained questioning and provided the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) with numerous leads. 

For the sake of justice for the rape-murder victim and to uncover the truth, the CBI should request the transfer of the three suspects to a prison outside Bengal.

The people of Bengal deserve to know how the police, RG Kar authorities, and TMC leaders allegedly conspired to cover up this heinous crime.