Kolkata hospital rape-murder: CBI begins probe; here’s what it will focus on

A team of senior CBI officers on Wednesday (August 14) began its investigation into the brutal rape and murder of a female postgraduate trainee doctor at the top state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital even as women across the city geared up to hold a massive protest march at midnight.

The probe was handed over to the CBI on Tuesday following a Calcutta High Court order. The CBI team, which reached Kolkata on Wednesday morning, reportedly comprises medical and forensic experts. They will visit the RG Kar hospital’s seminar hall where the body of the trainee doctor was found on August 9.

Three CBI teams formed

A central agency official told news agency PTI that three groups of CBI officers have been formed to investigate the matter.

One group will visit RG Kar hospital and talk to the witnesses and the doctors who were on duty on that night.

Another team has taken Sanjay Roy, the only person to be arrested in the case so far, in custody, after his medical tests were conducted at the state-run SSKM Hospital.

The third team will coordinate with the Kolkata Police sleuths who were conducting the investigation. Two CBI officers went to Tala Police Station on Tuesday evening and took documents related to the Kolkata Police’s investigation.

Focus of CBI probe

A CBI source told PTI that the agency has filed an FIR under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in New Delhi.

“Today, our officers will seek the call details of the deceased woman and those on duty on that day. They may submit the FIR in a local court,” another central agency source said.

Media house NDTV cited sources as saying that the CBI’s Special Crime Unit (SC1) will examine the crime scene for fingerprints, footprints, and other forensic evidence.

The team will also review the evidence gathered by Kolkata Police and re-record accused Roy’s statement. The CCTV footage available at the hospital will reportedly be seized.

The team will also record the statements of hospital personnel, the deceased doctor’s friends, including the four who had dinner with her hours before the crime took place, her family members, and the doctors who performed the autopsy.

Six issues to be probed

According to NDTV, the CBI inquiry will focus on six key issues:

1. Was the PGT doctor raped by one man or more than one?

The Kolkata Police has maintained that Roy was the only perpetrator, confirmed by the autopsy report and Roy’s confession to them (not recorded before a magistrate). The autopsy report has matched the skin and blood samples found under the fingernails of the victim with those of Roy, and the injuries on his body have also corroborated it, say the police. Roy has reportedly told the police that he was alone.

However, a section of protesters has maintained since the beginning that given the nature of the woman’s injuries, it could not have been the work of one person. The woman’s parents — who had sought a court-monitored probe — argued in Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that the injuries suggested that there was more than one attacker. The police have, however, argued in court that the injuries would have been different had there been more people.

The High Court said in its order: “The petitioners have narrated the state in which the body of their daughter was found when they were permitted to see…there were bleeding injuries over the body and there was no cloth on the lower part of the body… The parents suspect that more than one individual were offenders and their suspicion is that it is a case of gang rape.”

2. Was Sanjay Roy alone?

Even if the PGT doctor was not raped by more than one person, the question remains whether there were others who helped the perpetrator commit the murder, for instance, or helped him in other ways.

3) Was evidence tampered with after the incident?

The hospital, the state government, and Kolkata Police, which are already facing severe flak over the incident, are facing further heat over allegations that the hospital suddenly started dismantling the crime scene in the name of renovation, that too just a day before the CBI was to begin its probe.

Strangely, the “renovation” started happening in the chest medicine department itself, where the crime occurred. The seminar hall, where the doctor was allegedly raped and murdered, was already partially demolished — leading many to wonder whether it was an attempt to tamper with evidence.

It’s a crucial question why the crime scene was not sealed off anyway, as they are supposed to be, especially since the CBI was yet to begin its probe and try to collect forensic evidence.

4) Why was a suspected rape-murder reported to the family as a suicide?

The woman’s father had complained right after the news broke of her death that the hospital had called them to claim that she had died by suicide even though her semi-naked state and grievous injuries clearly suggested otherwise.

The parents told Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that she had last spoken to them at 11.30 pm on Thursday (August 8), hours before she was found dead. They told the court that she had “sounded in her usual good spirits, showing no sign of distress or discomfort”.

The parents said the assistant superintendent of the hospital had called them at 10.53 am the next day and at first claimed that their daughter was unwell. Around 22 minutes later, the same person called them again to say that she had died by suicide at the hospital.

5) Was the hospital administration involved in the incident?

A large section of the protesters has alleged that the hospital administration tried to hush up the incident and other hospital insider(s) may have aided Roy in the crime.

The high court on Tuesday questioned why Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital who was sent on long leave by the court, had not filed a complaint after the PGT doctor was found dead.

“The principal of the institution, either by himself or by issuing appropriate directions, could have lodged a complaint with the police since the death occurred within the hospital premises. This, in our view, was a clear dereliction of duty on the part of the principal,” the court said.

In the other hearing regarding the CBI probe, the court said, “The petitioners [woman’s parents] immediately rushed to the hospital and, according to them, they were not permitted to see their daughter’s body and they were made to wait for 3 hours,” adding that the petitioners “suspect that this delay was intentional”.

The court also told the state regarding the principal’s immediate transfer to another medical college, “...why do you protect [him]? Let him tell the truth... something is missing here.”

6. Why were the police informed so late?

The state counsel told the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that the police outpost at the hospital was informed about the incident as late as 10.10 am on Friday, whereas the incident happened between 3 am and 5 am, according to the autopsy report.

Tala Police Station was informed at 10.30 am, while a homicidal team reached the hospital at 11 am. At 11.30 am, the Additional Commissioner of Police and other senior officers were at the site, the state said.

Not only were the police informed late, the hospital administration registered a case of unnatural death at first. The court said this was “quite disturbing”. “When the deceased victim was a doctor working in the hospital, it is rather surprising as to why the principal/hospital did not lodge a formal complaint. This, in our view, was a serious lapse, giving room for suspicion,” the court said.