A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud during hearing its suo motu case on Tuesday, (September 17, 2024) over the alleged rape and murder of a Kolkata’s postgraduate doctor inside R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) line of investigation into the R.G. Kar rape and murder case is intended to reveal the “absolute truth”, and it would be unwise to either hurry the probe or dislocate it by revealing the line of investigation.
“The line of investigation followed by the CBI is intended to unearth the absolute truth. They are looking at various issues, including the scene of crime tampering, complicity of other persons, tampering of evidence… the SHO has been arrested. The CBI has specifically responded to issues raised by us in the previous court hearing,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud addressed the lawyers present in the courtroom after perusing the CBI status report.
The Chief Justice urged protesting doctors to give the Central agency, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, time to complete the investigation.
The court asked the CBI, however, to consider inputs and genuine concerns shared by the victim’s father in a letter addressed to the investigating officer of the Central agency on September 12 and maintain contact with the family.
The court, in a separate order, directed Wikipedia to take down an information which may disclose the identity or compromise the dignity or privacy of the victim. The court said such disclosures would be against the law.
During the hearing, the court heard a lawyer who submitted there were gaps in the seizure and collection of the forensic evidence, including samples, from the crime scene. The Chief Justice reacted that what was revealed in the CBI report was “worse”. The court was “very disturbed”, the CJI remarked orally.
The lawyer noted that the CBI had got only 27 minutes of CCTV footage. There was a possibility of somebody having used a ‘blocker device’ to tamper with the hash value of the footage. Besides, the lawyer noted that the CCTV footage of the entrance of the seminar room, where the crime allegedly took place, only showed a particular portion of the area.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, however, refuted the allegations, saying the Kolkata Police had handed over all the hard drives containing over seven to eight hours of CCTV footage. He said ₹100 crore has already been sanctioned for enhanced CCTV coverage of government hospitals and the State Task Force headed by the Chief Secretary with the Home Secretary, the DGP, Kolkata Police Commissioner and representatives of the doctors would be constituted to formulate safety mechanisms for medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal.
The court asked the CBI to consider setting up an online portal to receive anonymous complaints of sexual harassment by women doctors.
Published – September 17, 2024 11:13 pm IST
