The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday told a special court in Sealdah that they had not found any evidence that the 31-year-old junior doctor at RG Kar Hospital was gangraped, but their investigation was still on.
Seeking further remand of former principal of R G Kar hospital, Sandip Ghosh, and former office in-charge of Tala police station, Abhijit Mondal, the central probe agency told the court that they have proof of evidence tampering and were verifying all possibilities.
The court on Tuesday extended their remand for another three days, till September 20. “That during their police custody remand from 15.09.2024 to 17.09.2024, they were subjected to interrogation/further interrogation based on the CDRs of their mobile numbers. During the said process, they were confronted with the relevant records and witnesses. The said process is still continuing. That the DVR and Hard Disk containing the CCTV footage of Tala Police Station has also been collected and data of the same is required to be extracted on the basis of which further custodial interrogation of accused persons is required,” the court said in its order.
“…during custodial interrogation of both the accused persons, some more suspected mobile numbers have come to light and the CDRs of the same are under collection for confrontation with accused persons. That the CCTV footage of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital have been seized and the data have been examined/extracted by CFSL, Kolkata. The interrogation of accused persons with regard to the said extracted data pertaining to movements of various persons/suspected persons (as per CCTV footage during the relevant period) is required to be confronted with the accused persons,” the court said in its order.
The CBI counsel also told the court that details of “each and every phone call exchanged” by Ghosh and Mondal is required to be verified with the suspected calls to corroborate their versions “with a view to explore the possibility of criminal conspiracy hatched among main accused and co-accused persons, if any”.
“Further custodial interrogation based on the CCTV footage of Tala police station and mobile data extracted from their phones and cross verification/confrontation with other relevant witnesses is required to unearth the conspiracy/nexus, if any, and attempt to hush up the matter,” the court said in its order.
According to the CBI, both the accused “facilitated cremation of the woman doctor” in a hurried manner, while the family members specifically demanded a second autopsy.
The CBI had arrested Ghosh and Mondal in connection with the rape and murder case on September 15, Ghosh was arrested earlier by the CBI on September 2 for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities at RG Kar hospital. Three of his accomplices have also been arrested by the central agency.
A Kolkata Police civic volunteer, Sanjay Roy, was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the rape and murder case which is now being investigated by the CBI on an order of the Calcutta High Court.
Seeking the remand, the CBI also claimed that Ghosh remained “willfully” absent instead of closely monitoring the proceedings and taking necessary steps for the registration of FIR at the earliest.
The probe agency also claimed that an unnecessary “delay of two days” was caused in the seizure of clothes/belongings of accused Sanjay Roy whereas his role in the commission of crime had already emerged on August 10 morning, a day after the young woman doctor was found dead. “That Dr Sandip Ghosh further failed to ensure registration of proper FIR under the appropriate section of law. It is required to ascertain whether he acted in such a manner on the direction of any other persons in furtherance of any larger conspiracy,” the CBI said.
