A CBI team conducting a fresh probe into the rape and murder of the junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024 on Wednesday visited the Panihati facility where she was cremated.

The new three-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed on the instructions of Calcutta High Court. CBI sources said the investigating officer in the case, Sima Pahuja, has not been included in the new SIT.

The parents had earlier demanded the arrest and custodial interrogation of three persons allegedly involved in the hurried cremation on August 9, 2024.

The SIT is trying to ascertain the sequence of events leading to the cremation of her body after it was brought from the hospital, allegedly without the consent of her parents.

“It is obvious that the CBI would go to the crematorium. Trinamool’s Somnath Dey was alone in the vehicle carrying my daughter’s body that evening. None of the family members was allowed. At one point, unable to trace our daughter’s body, we went to Tala police station, where we were told that she had been taken to our home,” the mother said.

She alleged that by the time the family reached Panihati, local Trinamool leaders Somnath Dey, Sanjib Mukherjee and Nirmal Ghosh had laid the body in the middle of the road outside their home. “The body was lying unclaimed when we reached there,” she said.

The mother alleged that then deputy commissioner of police (north) Abhishek Gupta offered the family a bundle of money at the scene. “We refused the money and the DC left,” she alleged.

Gupta was suspended last month following allegations made by the parents.

The mother alleged that Trinamool leaders had “hijacked the situation” and made all arrangements before the family reached the crematorium.

“I know that the municipality chairman has to sign for any cremation. But in my daughter’s case, two TMC officials signed. What they did and why they did it is a matter for investigation,” she said.

CBI sources said that during their visit, the crematorium in-charge told them that the doctor’s family had “not raised any objection” at the time of the cremation.

Asked about this by a reporter, the mother said they were not given an opportunity to do so because everything had been arranged before their arrival.

The mother had also demanded the custodial interrogation of the doctors who had dinner with her daughter on the night of August 8-9.

“The court has asked the CBI to probe what happened between the dinner and the cremation. I am not sure why the people who had dinner with her have not been taken into custody,” she said.