As part of its investigation into the rape-murder of an on-duty doctor in the RG Kar hospital two years ago, a CBI team on Wednesday visited a crematorium in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district where the last rites of the woman medic were performed, an official said.
The special investigation team of the central agency went to the Panihati burning ghat and spoke to the workers there, he said.
"The CBI team took note of the proceedings at the burning ghat on the night when the deceased doctor was cremated. These will help our investigating officers to tie up loose ends," the CBI official told PTI.
The CBI sleuths moved around the burning ghat and took details from the register book about the entries made on the night when the deceased was cremated, he said.
"CBI officers noted down the time when the doctor's body was brought to the burning ghat, how many bodies were there at that moment and when the cremation was completed," he said.
The rape and murder of the 31-year-old woman doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, 2024, sparked nationwide outrage.
Workers at the crematorium were also asked whether there was "any political pressure on them to hurriedly cremate the doctor's body", the official said.
The CBI team had also gone to the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Monday and spoke to doctors, the principal and the staff, as part of its investigation.
There have been allegations that evidence was destroyed and attempts were made to downplay the incident in its immediate aftermath.
The Calcutta High Court had last month ordered a fresh investigation into the alleged destruction of evidence and the specific allegations raised by the family regarding the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at RG Kar hospital in Kolkata in August 2024.
The court had also ordered the setting up of a special investigation team of the CBI to probe the developments from the time the trainee doctor had dinner on the ill-fated night of August 9 in 2024 to her cremation the next evening.
The probe agency is authorised to interrogate anyone it deems necessary. Also, the SIT will thoroughly examine the specific allegations levelled by the victim's family. The court has asked the team to submit its report within the next hearing on June 25.
State Health Minister Dr Sharadwat Mukherjee stated that the state government has reopened files related to the RG Kar case.
Last week, Mukherjee held a nearly one-and-a-half-hour meeting with the victim's parents to understand their concerns regarding the investigation and the alleged shortcomings in handling the case.