West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: Beleaguered by the outrage against its government in West Bengal over the rape and murder of a doctor at a hospital in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress on Monday sought to turn the table on the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the probe into the crime on August 14.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party alleged that the CBI was deliberately delaying the probe to allow the Bharatiya Janata Party to continue targeting the Trinamool Congress by creating a false narrative about the heinous crime.
The TMC pointed out that only one accused had been arrested so far, and he too had been arrested by Kolkata Police, not by the CBI, just a day after the postgraduate trainee doctor had been found raped and murdered at the seminar hall of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
“What is the CBI doing? At this point, it seems that they’re keeping their head down, just to allow the BJP to target the state government and keep spreading a false narrative. None of the opposition parties are asking even for a word from the CBI,” Sagarika Ghose, the TMC’s Rajya Sabha member, said. “It’s a matter of serious concern that in the last five days, there has not been a single update from the CBI on the investigation,” Saket Gokhale, another TMC member in the Rajya Sabha, added.
Kunal Ghosh, a senior leader of the TMC, went to the CBI office in Kolkata on Monday to voluntarily hand over to the investigating officers some information that he claimed the junior doctors of the RGKMCH had given him.
“Now justice must be delivered by the CBI. The central agency should provide all information in its case diary when the accused is presented in court on August 23 after serving 14 days in police custody,” said Ghosh.
Banerjee and her party earlier alleged that the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were trying to reap political dividends out of the protests against the rape and the murder of the young doctor to destabilise her government in West Bengal. She said that the CBI should conclude the probe by the same deadline that she had set for the Kolkata Police.
The TMC leaders also said that the state government would seek the death penalty for the perpetrator or perpetrators of the heinous crime.
Sanjay Roy, a contractual employee of the Kolkata Police, was arrested by the cops on August 10 for allegedly raping and murdering the young doctor.
Banerjee on August 12 said that she would hand over the probe to the CBI if the Kolkata Police could not complete the investigation by August 18. The Calcutta High Court, however, on August 13 asked the Kolkata Police to hand over the probe to the CBI.
The central agency took over the probe on August 14 and also took custody of Roy on the same day. The accused was earlier remanded to police custody till August 23.
The parents of the victims and the doctors protesting against the rape and the murder alleged that multiple people might have been involved in committing the crime and cover-up attempts were made by the college authorities and the Kolkata Police.
The CBI has been questioning Dr Sandip Ghosh, who was removed from the office of the principal of the RGKMCH after the incident, since Friday.
The officers of the central agency also questioned several others and visited the crime scene at the RGKMCH and the residence of the victim several times.