RG Kar rape-murder | ‘150 gm semen’, ‘TMC leader’s son’: How true are these 5 claims?

The RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder case has been marred as much by allegations of a tardy and botched-up probe as it has been by the countless rumours and speculations that have been shared and reshared with a vengeance on social media.

In one audio clip — which has now been removed after Kolkata Police cracked down on social media users for spreading misinformation — a woman, purportedly an RG Kar insider, can be heard saying in an apparent “conversation” that seven or eight interns of the hospital were involved in the murder, and Sanjay Roy, the arrested civic volunteer, was manipulated into committing the rape after the death. Interestingly, only one person could be heard in the entire voice clip, as if it was a monologue, though she pretended to be speaking to another person. The post was liked and shared by thousands on Facebook.

In the same vein, other social media users have shared and reshared posts claiming that multiple people raped the woman. None of these claims have been backed by any evidence so far even though a large number of Kolkatans believe these to be true. Even media houses have fallen for at least one of these speculations and reported on it in detail. Over the past few days, Kolkata Police and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra have finally taken the initiative to bust some of these rumours. Here are five myths busted in the RG Kar hospital case:

1. The alleged involvement of a TMC minister’s son

Since the very beginning, rumours spread like wildfire on social media that the hospital, state government, and police were “trying to shield” Subhadip Singh Mahapatra, an intern at RG Kar Medical College and the “son of minister Soumen Mahapatra”.

First, Subhadip Singh Mahapatra is not Soumen Mahapatra’s son. The former minister and current MLA clarified to the media days back that his son’s name is Bodhisattwa Mahapatra who is currently the Block Medical Officer of Health (BMOH) in Panskura, Midnapore East. He has nothing to do with RG Kar hospital, and he interned at SSKM Hospital way back in 2017. His mother Sumana also told the press that he was with his pregnant wife at Apollo Hospitals when the crime took place.

Second, Subhadip Singh Mahapatra, the intern who has been widely blamed, is the son of Prabir Singh Mahapatra, a primary school teacher In Bankura district. Subhadip is indeed an intern at RG Kar hospital and he has been questioned by the police, too. Ne never “went missing”, as it was rumoured. Prabir Singh Mahapatra has now lodged a complaint with Bankura’s Sarenga Police Station against the misinformation being spread about his son along with his photo.

2. Autopsy revealing “150 gm of semen” in the deceased doctor’s body

A reputable media house was the first to run this story along with a doctor’s opinion, who reportedly said the autopsy had revealed 151 gm of liquid in the vaginal swab, which “cannot be of one person” and suggested the “involvement of multiple people”.

Before long, other media houses, too, went with the story, though many changed “150 gm” to “150 mg”. It was also reported that the woman’s parents, in their complaint in Calcutta High Court, mentioned “150 mg” as the amount of semen in the woman’s body, which they claimed could not be of one person.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra has busted the myth over the “150 gm semen” in an X post. She clarified that first, any fluid, such as semen, is measured in millilitres (ml) and not in gram or milligram (mg). Second, the “150 gm” figure mentioned in the autopsy is the weight of the woman’s internal and external genitalia, just like the measurements and weights of all organs given in an autopsy.

Kolkata Police has also repeatedly maintained that the number of men whose semen is present in a sample cannot be estimated with the naked eye or with this kind of speculation. The samples have reportedly been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, but the report is yet to come.

Since a lot of people even believe that the autopsy report was “fake”, Moitra clarified that the entire process was videographed and carried out in the presence of a judicial magistrate, three doctors as witnesses, and the woman’s family. “It was not possible to tamper with anything,” she said.

3. The woman’s “pelvic girdle” or “pelvic bone” was “fractured”

A neighbour of the deceased doctor’s family, who accompanied the parents to the hospital after the doctor’s death, told the media in an interview — that subsequently went viral — that the woman’s “legs were spread 90 degrees apart” which “could not have been possible without her pelvic girdle being fractured”.

However, neither of the two autopsy reports, the preliminary one and the final one, mentioned any fractures. The four-page report mentioned that the victim was throttled before being smothered to death, leaving her thyroid cartilage broken.

She had injuries to her belly, lips, fingers, and left leg. Her mouth was covered and her head was dashed against a wall or the floor, and her mouth and throat were constantly pressed to prevent her from screaming.

She was bleeding from her eyes, mouth, and private parts. A deep wound was found in her private parts, caused by “perverted sexuality” and “genital torture”. But there was no mention of any fracture. A senior Kolkata Police officer told TOI that the woman’s claims were based on “multiple fake facts”.

4. Police filed unnatural death case and “told the family she had died by suicide” because it wanted to hush up the case

Kolkata Police has clarified that they did not tell the woman’s family about her “suicide”. It was allegedly done by the assistant superintendent of the hospital.

Second, the police have also denied that the lodging of an unnatural death case was an attempt to hush up the incident. Kolkata Police chief Vineet Goyal has explained to the media that an unnatural death case is often lodged as a matter of procedure. Once a formal complaint is lodged and the autopsy report is received, the unnatural death cases can be turned into a murder investigation.

The process is explained in the BNSS and previously the CrPC.

5. The crime scene was not sealed off and was tampered with in the name of renovation

There have been a lot of allegations that the seminar room, where the young doctor was allegedly raped and murdered on August 9, was demolished in the name of renovations.

The state government has told the Calcutta High Court that the crime scene was secure and the renovations were taking place elsewhere in the hospital.

Mahua Moitra also stated in the video that the crime scene or the place of occurrence (PO) was “sealed off by the police immediately after the crime came to light”. Now, only the Kolkata Police and the CBI can access it and it is “secure”.

Regarding the construction work, she said the students and doctors had told the health secretary immediately after the incident that they wanted a rest area and toilets immediately, and the construction is being made at a place of the students’ choosing, which is not the PO or the crime scene.