BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Saturday demanded an investigation into the conduct of a senior CBI officer who had led the probe into the RG Kar hospital rape and murder case.
Gangopadhyay, a former Calcutta High Court judge and MP from Tamluk, said CBI superintendent Seema Pahuja should be named as an “accused” in the fresh investigation ordered by the BJP government in Bengal.
He accused Pahuja of failing to investigate a video allegedly collected from an RG Kar nurse and not examining a room where, he said, “incriminating evidence” could have been found.
The CBI reports to the Union home ministry.
In a video circulated on Saturday, Gangopadhyay is seen wearing medical scrubs and speaking from different locations in the hospital.
Standing near a staircase, he says that some people had carried down “something heavy” on the night of the crime. “A sister had video recorded it. The CBI took that video from her and forced her to delete it. The CBI has not shown that video (in the probe) till now. Seema Pahuja, who was in charge of the investigation, hid the video and did not release it,” Gangopadhyay says.
At another staircase, he says: “Possibly Abhaya’s body was taken down these stairs... These stairs lead to the room where her body was recovered dead.”
He added: “These were never brought under the ambit of the investigation. It is negligence on the part of the CBI. I will again say it is negligence on the part of Seema Pahuja.”
Standing outside a locked room, Gangopadhyay says that the CBI had never opened it. “None from the CBI opened this room and saw what is inside, whereas it has been said that there are blades, blood-stained gloves inside this room, things that should not have been there. Where did they come from? The CBI did not probe it... No one has opened this door till today. Much evidence can be found if this door is opened.”
A nurse heard in the video says the CBI had promised to inspect the room. “We waited, but the CBI did not turn up,” she says.
Later, speaking to ABP Ananda, Gangopadhyay said: “Incriminating evidence can be collected from the room not opened in two years... Seema Pahuja should be named as an accused in this case. She is also involved in suppression (of facts), else the investigation would not have taken this shape.”
CBI officers declined to comment on Gangopadhyay’s charges. One officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was a “court-monitored” investigation and it would not be appropriate to comment.
While sentencing accused Sanjay Roy to rigorous life imprisonment, a CBI court in Calcutta had noted that Pahuja, in her deposition, had confirmed that the seminar hall at RG Kar hospital was the scene of the crime and that the body had not been brought there from elsewhere.
The order also stated that Pahuja denied suggestions that the CBI had “blindly” followed Kolkata Police findings or falsely implicated Roy to “shield the real culprit”.
The new BJP government in Bengal has reopened the RG Kar investigation, though the CBI had already concluded its probe. Three IPS officers were suspended on Friday in connection with the August 2024 crime.