New Delhi:

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Wednesday the matter where it has taken suo moto cognisance of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

As per the causelist published on the website of the supreme court, a bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan will resume hearing the suo moto case on January 22.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government on Tuesday approached the Calcutta High Court, challenging the verdict of a Kolkata special court awarding life imprisonment to Sanjay Roy, the sole accused and convict in the rape and murder case of the woman doctor.

A division bench of Justices Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi of the Calcutta High Court admitted the state government’s appeal seeking a death penalty for the convict.

A day before, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the Bengal government would move the Calcutta High Court challenging the quantum of the sentence and the state government would be seeking the death penalty for the convict.

“I am convinced that it is indeed a rarest of rare cases which demands capital punishment. We want to insist upon the death penalty in this most sinister and sensitive case,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

While pronouncing the quantum of the sentence, special court judge Anirban Das said that the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) contention that Roy’s offence in the matter was “the rarest and rare crimes” was not tenable. Hence, the judge observed that instead of the “death penalty”, Roy, an erstwhile civic volunteer attached to Kolkata Police, be sentenced to “life imprisonment”.

Apart from that a fine of Rs 50,000 was also imposed on Roy. The special court, at the same time, directed the West Bengal government to pay a compensation of Rs 17 lakh to the family of the victim. It observed that since the victim was raped and murdered at her workplace, which is a state-government entity, the West Bengal government is legally bound to pay compensation to the victim’s family.

In an earlier hearing held in November 2024, the Supreme Court had remarked that it would not pass any direction to transfer the trial of the ghastly rape and murder case outside West Bengal. A bench, headed by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, turned down the oral prayer made by a lawyer seeking transfer of trial outside West Bengal.

“Yes, we have transferred cases (of gender violence) in Manipur. But we are not doing anything like that here,” it had remarked. The supreme court had noted that the trial will commence on November 11 at a special court in Kolkata after charges were framed against the “sole prime accused” in the case, Sanjay Roy.

The process of the framing of charges was completed on November 4, exactly 87 days after the body of the woman junior doctor was discovered at a seminar hall within the state-run R.G. Kar premises on the morning of August 9, 2024.

In October, the CBI filed its first charge sheet against Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with Kolkata Police, in the alleged rape and murder case. In the charge sheet, the CBI did not rule out the possibilities of a larger conspiracy behind the macabre crime that prompted alleged events of tampering and altering of evidence during the initial phase of the investigation which was carried out by Kolkata Police.

Besides Sanjay Roy, two others arrested by the CBI officials in the matter are RG Kar Medical College and Hospital’s former Principal, Sandip Ghosh, and the former SHO of Tala Police Station, Abhijit Mondal. RG Kar comes under the jurisdiction of Tala Police Station.

The main charges against Ghosh and Mondal are for misleading the investigation when the Kolkata Police were probing the matter before it was handed over to CBI by the Calcutta High Court. Both have been accused of tampering with evidence in the case.

Taking suo moto cognisance of the rape and murder case of the junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the Supreme Court had termed the incident “horrific,” which raises the “systemic issue of safety of doctors across the country”. “We are deeply concerned about the fact that there is an absence of safe conditions of work for young doctors across the country, particularly, public hospitals,” it had said.

The supreme court had ordered the formation of the NTF (National Task Force) to suggest measures for the security of medical professionals across the country, observing that the safety of doctors is the “highest national concern”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

North 24 Parganas (West Bengal):

As the Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court is set to announce the verdict of RG Kar’s rape-murder case today, the father of the deceased doctor said on Saturday that whatever punishment is appropriate will be decided by the court.

Speaking to ANI, he asserted that they will continue to knock on the door of the court until they get justice in the case.

“Not just one, but the DNA report shows the presence of four boys and one girl. We will feel some relief when the accused are punished. Until we get justice, we will keep knocking on the doors of the court and will also seek the support of the people of the country,” the father said.

He also alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation has done nothing in the matter.

“The CBI has done nothing in this matter. There is no question of satisfaction here. We have raised several questions before the High Court and the Supreme Court. We have sought answers from the court itself. We did not seek answers from the CBI, but the court assigned all responsibility to the CBI,” he said.

“In two months, the court reviewed all the evidence, and whatever punishment is appropriate will be decided by the court,” the father of RG Kar victim added.

He also mentioned that they have written letters to the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and the Law Minister, but have not received any response from any of them.

The case, which involves the rape and murder of a trainee doctor whose body was found on August 9 in the hospital’s seminar room, sparked widespread protests. After the incident, Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer at the hospital, was arrested in connection with the crime.

In November last year, the CBI filed a chargesheet concerning financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The chargesheet named Sandip Ghosh and others, including Dr. Ashish Kumar Pandey, Biplab Singha, Suman Hazra, and Afsar Ali Khan, for their involvement in financial misconduct. This investigation was initiated following an order by the Calcutta High Court.

In addition to the corruption case, Sandip Ghosh faced questioning regarding the murder case. As part of the probe, the CBI conducted polygraph tests on him.

A delay in filing the chargesheet resulted in bail being granted to the accused, including Abhijit Mondal and Sandip Ghosh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

A local court verdict on the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is scheduled today. Civic volunteer Sanjay Roy is the key accused in the case that shook the nation and sparked protests.

Kolkata:

The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet in connection with the RG Kar Hospital financial irregularities in which it has named former principal of the medical establishment Sandip Ghosh as the prime accused, an official said.

In the 100-odd page chargesheet, the central probe agency has also named four others who were arrested for alleged involvement in the irregularities, he said.

“Apart from Ghosh (who has been suspended), the chargesheet includes the names of the other four arrested accused – Biplab Singh, Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Ashish Pandey. The CBI has also attached at least 1,000 pages of documents in support of their investigation of the case,” the officer told PTI.

However, the chargesheet was not accepted by the Special CBI court at Alipore here, as the official approval required to file chargesheet against any state government employee was not available.

“The West Bengal government needs to approve a chargesheet that has the name of its employee before it is submitted in the court. In this case, the approval has not yet come. Both Ghosh and Pandey are doctors of the state-run hospital,” he said.

The chargesheet was filed almost three months after Ghosh was arrested on September 2 in connection with the financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, which grabbed national headlines after the body of an on-duty medic was found in the seminar room in August.

It has been alleged that the financial fraud was underway at the hospital for over three years. During this period, tenders were rigged while purchasing medical equipment for the hospital, and Ghosh allegedly helped his close associates to bag the tenders.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its first chargesheet at a special court in Kolkata in connection with the multi-crore financial irregularities matter at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital here.

Sources aware of the development said that in the first chargesheet, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh and four others have been named.

The other four named in the chargesheet are Asish Pandey, Sandip Ghosh’s personal bodyguard Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Singha. The last two individuals named are private contractors and suppliers.

Besides five individuals, three business entities engaged in the supply of products and services to the RG Kar authorities were also named in the chargesheet.

However, although the chargesheet was submitted by CBI to the court on Friday, it was not officially accepted by the court authorities.

This is because since Sandip Ghosh and Asish Pandey were attached to the West Bengal government as employees, the acceptance of the chargesheet by the court authorities can be done only after there is an official clearance from the state government.

Sources in the know of things said that in the chargesheet, the CBI officials had given details on how Sandip Ghosh used to manipulate the tendering process of RG Kar to ensure that only contractors close to him got work-orders or contracts against hefty commissions.

In the chargesheet, the investigating officials had also given details on the skyrocketing increase in the quantum of assets and properties of the accused persons, especially Sandip Ghosh, during the short period after he assumed the charge as the Principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Sources added that in the chargesheet, Sandip Ghosh has been identified as the mastermind behind the entire alleged scam.

Besides making manipulations in the tendering process, the other charges in the case are getting infrastructure-related work at R.G. Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state public works department, smuggling bio-medical wastes from the hospital and selling the organs of the unidentified bodies brought to the hospital for autopsy purposes.

Besides the financial irregularities case, the CBI is also probing Sandip Ghosh and former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal in connection with the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in August this year.

The main charges against Sandip Ghosh and Mondal in this case are tampering with the evidence and misleading the investigation while the initial probe was being carried out by Kolkata Police before the matter was handed over to CBI.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)