A new division bench comprising Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Tirthankar Ghosh at the Calcutta High Court is set to hear the case concerning the 2024 rape and murder of a female doctor from the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday. The hearing is scheduled to commence at 1 p.m., as per the court’s cause list.
Following the recusal of the previous division bench led by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha on May 12, citing the need for a swift hearing of this significant case, Chief Justice Sujoy Paul of the Calcutta High Court reassigned the case to the new bench of Justice Sarkar and Justice Ghosh on May 15. All petitions related to the case, including the victim’s family’s request to visit the crime scene, will now be addressed by this new division bench, as stated by Justice Paul.
Notably, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), responsible for the investigation, did not oppose the victim’s family’s plea to visit the crime scene. However, the previous state government, under former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had raised objections. During a prior hearing, the former division bench led by Justice Mantha questioned the state government’s opposition to the family’s plea, especially when the CBI did not object.
Recently, the new state government, under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, took action by suspending former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal and two deputy commissioners, Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta, for their inadequate handling of the initial investigation before the case was transferred to the CBI. Additionally, Adhikari announced the government’s approval for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, who is implicated in financial irregularities at R.G. Kar and the doctor’s rape and murder case.
However, the permission granted by the state government for the ED to prosecute Sandip Ghosh is specifically for the financial irregularities case at R.G. Kar, as the ED is separately investigating this matter. Simultaneously, the CBI is conducting a parallel investigation into both the financial irregularities case and the rape and murder case that occurred within the hospital premises in August 2024.
