The Supreme Court of India.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the CBI's status report on the investigation regarding the alleged rape and murder of trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9 is "worse, really disturbing, and it has disturbed the judges".
Taking up a suo motu matter, a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also criticised the West Bengal for its notification for avoiding night shift to women doctors, saying they don't need concession but equal opportunities.
During the hearing, the West Bengal government assured the court that that no punitive or adverse action will be taken against the junior doctors who resumed duties for the period during which they abstained from work.
The agitating junior doctors also said that they do not have any difficulty in resuming their duties provided the confidence building measures are put in place, as was agreed upon between them and the Chief Minister on September 16. Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, for junior lawyers, said they will have general body meeting to discuss returning to work.
At the outset, the court rejected a plea by the state government led by senior advocate Kapil Sibal against live streaming of the proceedings on allegations that the lawyers were threatened, besmirched and vilified.
"This is a matter of great public importance and public must know what transpires in the courtroom," the bench said.
Going through the CBI's status report, the court expressed satisfaction over the line of investigation undertaken by the CBI, saying disclosing it might jeopardise the probe.
"We are absolutely confident it would be reveal the truth and further truth, it would be unwise to make any comment on this at the moment," the bench said.
During the hearing, a counsel said the jeans and undergarments of the victim never went to the post mortem doctor, and now it has been clarified that they were lying in the room and asked why the investigating officer did not take it? “There has to be two seizures: one at the place of occurrence, what they seized, and the second is where the post mortem took place, samples which were collected (of the victim)”, he said.
“What is troubling is that the seizures had to take place….next morning on August 10, at 10:30 AM, whether those samples were sent to the magistrate…because then the magistrate had to forward it to the CFSL. What is the date on which these samples were sent to the magistrate for forwarding,” the counsel contended.
The court said it does not want to disclose the details of the CBI's status report, as it would dislocate the investigation and also do not want anybody to take advantage of it as a technical issue later on.
"What the CBI has revealed in its status report is worse, really disturbing!. What you are flagging is of utmost concern. But we can only share with you that we are ourselves disturbed with what CBI has told us ( in the status report)….they (CBI) are themselves very concerned,” the bench said.
One counsel argued that the Kolkata Police has only given 27 minutes of the footage, why till date the entire footage has not been seized and when the police gave it to the CBI, did they use a blocker device, which ensures the hash value, which is fingerprint of every electronic document, does not change.
On this, the bench asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, "Can you not summon the state police that it should be handed over to the CBI?"
Mehta said documents were given to the CBI by Kolkata Police and the challan was not included in it.
The bench said that it does not want the investigation to be dislocated and, while referring to the letter by the parents of the victim, told a counsel, representing the parents' of the victim, to be rest assured that the letter will be looked into by the investigating officer of the CBI.
Regarding the challan, Sibal said that document was not being used since 1997. However, the bench said the police should cooperate with the CBI and they want the entirety of the footage to be handed over.
Mehta said the DVR only has 27 minutes of footage.
“We want to know whether the DVR of the CCTV footage was handed over to the CBI. CBI says we have 27 minutes of the raw footage of the search and seizure….is it your statement that nothing remains with the police," the bench asked Sibal, who replied that everything has been handed over to the CBI.
After going through the status report submitted by CBI, the bench observed that the CBI is not "sleeping over" the investigation and that they need to be given time to "unearth the truth, and declined to divulge the details, furnished by the CBI, saying that disclosures might hamper the investigating.
During the course of the hearing, Mehta objected to Wikipedia's stand of not removing the victim's name and picture. The court directed Wikipedia to immediately remove the victim's name and photo disclosing her identity keeping in principles of privacy and dignity. "The governing principle is that identity of the victim in rape and murder shall not be disclosed. Wikipedia shall therefore comply with the previous order passed," the bench said.
One counsel sought action against the Chief Minister during the hearing which was rejected by the court.