Kolkata hospital rape-murder: How torn Bluetooth device led to arrest of civic volunteer

The man arrested in connection with the rape and murder of the young trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has reportedly been identified as a 33-year-old Kolkata Police civic volunteer, Sanjay Roy.

Even as the strike by trainee doctors in Kolkata threatened to blow up into a nationwide agitation — with the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) on Sunday announcing that they would halt all elective (non-emergency) services in solidarity with their colleagues at RG Kar hospital — details of how the police zeroed in on Roy came to light.

How police found the clue

According to media reports, it was a Bluetooth earphone that gave him away. The torn earphone was found in the seminar room where the second-year postgraduate trainee doctor’s body was found on Friday.

When police scanned the CCTV footage, they reportedly saw Roy entering the emergency building, which houses the seminar room, with the Bluetooth device around his neck around 4 am. However, when he left the building some 40 minutes later, the earphone had gone missing. The torn device was reportedly found to be paired with his mobile phone.

Who is Sanjay Roy?

Roy had been recruited as a civic volunteer in 2019, in Kolkata Police’s Disaster Management Group. Often called “civic police”, this force was created in West Bengal to help the police. However, there are many allegations against civic volunteers of behaving rudely and thinking they are equivalent to the police.

Reportedly because of his connections, Roy soon managed to get a transfer to the Kolkata Police’s Welfare Cell. He reportedly even lived on the premises of Kolkata Police’s 4th Battalion. These “connections” reportedly helped him get a posting at RG Kar hospital.

Easy access

Roy had reportedly been posted at RG Kar hospital’s police outpost on several occasions, sometimes for long periods, and that is how he had easy access to every department of the hospital. Hospital security guards reportedly said Roy visited the hospital regularly, while some alleged that he often made deals with patients to get them services.

Roy reportedly first entered the hospital around 11 pm — already drunk. He left the hospital again and reportedly downed a few more pegs. After that, he was seen entering the emergency building around 4 am and leaving 40 minutes later, as mentioned earlier.

Brutal assault

The deceased trainee doctor had eaten dinner with four colleagues in the seminar room while watching Neeraj Chopra win silver. After that, well after midnight, the other doctors left, while she remained in the room as she was on night duty. She was seen sleeping in the room at 3am.

Circumstantial evidence shows that Roy entered the seminar room around 4 am and attacked the female doctor when she was asleep. He sexually assaulted her brutally and when she resisted, he violently beat her up and throttled her.

Her body was found at 7.30 am. Post-mortem revealed her neck bone had been broken, and that she was likely first strangulated and then smothered to death. She was bleeding from her private parts, both her eyes and mouth, and had injuries on her face and nails. She also had injuries in her belly, left leg, neck, in her right hand, ring finger and, lips, according to the report.

No lawyer agrees to represent Roy

According to CCTV footage, five others had also been in the area around the seminar hall during that time, but only Roy reportedly had no explanation for his presence there at that time. He reportedly confessed to the crime, according to police, as reported in the media.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal has refused to confirm Roy’s identity as a civic volunteer. “Whatever he may be, he is a criminal as he committed such a heinous crime. He deserves punishment of the highest order. Evidence has been collected against him,” he said at a press conference.

Roy was on Saturday produced in Sealdah court, which remanded him in 14 days’ police custody. In a reminder to the 2012 Nirbhaya case, no lawyer has agreed to represent Roy. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said the state would seek the death penalty for him.