(Image source from: english.jagran.com)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given Kolkata Police six days to complete their investigation into the gruesome rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at a government hospital. She said on Monday that if the city police could not complete the investigation by Sunday, the state government would recommend a CBI probe into the case that has rocked the state and the country. But five days before the prime minister's deadline to file a case with the police, the Kolkata High Court intervened and ordered that the case be immediately transferred to a central agency. It was unusual that the case was ordered transferred at the first court hearing. A bench headed by Justice TS Sivagnanam noted that "no significant progress has been made in the investigation so far" and raised the possibility of evidence being destroyed. The court also pointed out serious mistakes by the hospital management and blamed the hospital's former director, whose resignation and quick return to key positions caused the conflict.
Several public interest litigations have been filed in the Supreme Court, collectively demanding that the state police hand over the investigation to the CBI or some other independent agency. The petitioners included the victim's parents and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. The court order said the plaintiffs had alleged that there were injuries on the victim's body and pointed out that Chief Minister Banerjee had said the state government had no objection if the probe was transferred to the CBI. The parents called for a Supreme Court-supervised investigation to ensure evidence was not tampered with or destroyed. Parents should also protect themselves, witnesses and others who may have information about the case. The court said the decision was based on various Supreme Court rulings. Here we refer to the judgment of K.V. We have v. Inspector of Police (2013) noted where the court exercised its statutory powers to transfer the investigation from the National Bureau of Investigation when it deems necessary to achieve justice between the parties and to build confidence among the people.
Other factors include: "Lack of credibility in state police investigations, particularly when the conduct of fair, honest and thorough investigations is necessary to maintain public confidence in the impartial operation of state authorities." According to the victim's parents, he had to Spoken with them at 11:30 p.m. before his body was found and “showed no signs of distress or distress and appeared to be in good spirits.”
According to her parents, the hospital staff called at 10:53 a.m. the next day that their daughter was not feeling well. About 22 minutes later, the same deputy superintendent informed him that his daughter had committed suicide on the hospital premises. “The petitioners immediately went to the hospital but, according to them, were not allowed to see the body of their daughter and had to wait for three hours,” the petition said. The victim's parents said they were only allowed to see the body after the chief minister's intervention. By this time, a massive riot had broken out on the hospital premises.
The order said, "When the petitioners were allowed to meet, they described the circumstances under which their daughter's body was found and said that there were bleeding wounds all over her body and there was no cloth on her lower body," he added : "The parents suspect that several people were guilty and that it was a case of gang rape." The state government's lawyer said the medical college and hospital police station received information about the incident at 10:10 a.m. on Friday. At 10:30 a.m. he called the local police, Tala police station. At 11 am, the murder team reached the R.G Karr Medical College and Hospital and by then more than 150 people had gathered. It was reported at 11am. An assassination team was formed within 30 minutes." The public prosecutor's office said: Police commissioners and high-ranking police officers arrived at the scene of the accident in the morning, and the victim's parents arrived at the scene of the accident at 1 p.m.
The state government claimed it was a lie that parents had to wait for three hours. The state government said that the victims' bodies could not be removed from the seminar venue due to the violence and doctors examined the bodies at the seminar venue. The rapid reaction force then had to be called and an autopsy was carried out between 6:10 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.
