A division bench of the high court has started hearing an appeal by the parents of the postgraduate trainee who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in 2024.
The division bench of Justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Rai Chattopadhyay had rescued itself from hearing the matter last week, citing a heavy roster and sent the matter to Chief Justice Sujoy Paul for reassignment.
Justice Paul reassigned the case to the division bench of Justices Sampa Sarkar and Tirthankar Ghosh.
After multiple bench changes, the hearing in the RG Kar case began before the division bench of Justice Sarkar.
The parents of the slain doctor had requested a fresh investigation into the case. The bench said on Tuesday that the doctor’s family must explain in court why a fresh investigation by the CBI was necessary.
“Which places have been sealed by the CBI?” the court asked the CBI investigating, Sima Pahuja.
“The seminar room where the doctor was found has been sealed,” Pahuja replied.
“Was there any need to seal any other place? If required, then seal it,” the court said.
The CBI said the trial judge himself had written in the order that the seminar room was the crime scene.
The division bench said that a trial judge can act only on the basis of the evidence collected and placed before the court by the investigating agency.
The advocate for the parents of the slain doctor argued that multiple people may have been present there.
“Several individuals were not questioned. There are many gaps in the investigation,” said the family’s lawyer Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee.
Chatterjee said that the report submitted by the CBI only contains details of what had already been done earlier, which is already known, and that there is nothing substantially new. He requested the court to allow the family a chance to visit the crime scene.
The matter would be heard on May 21.
In August 2024, the body of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee was found inside the seminar hall of the emergency building of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Initially, Kolkata Police had started the probe and arrested civic volunteer Sanjay Roy as the prime suspect. Four days later, CBI took over the probe but could not find any evidence to suggest the presence of any other person at the crime scene. Roy was convicted by the CBI court in Sealdah. The doctor's family had appealed for further investigation in the case with a list of fresh demands. They maintained that they were of the opinion that the crime was committed by more than one person.