Doctor rape-murder: TMC MP summoned by Kolkata Police over social media post moves Calcutta High Court

Kolkata: Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, a Trinamool Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, on Monday moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the notice the Kolkata Police issued, summoning him to appear before it for questioning regarding his post on X about the investigation into the rape and murder of a doctor.

The High Court will hear the veteran parliamentarian’s petition challenging the notice of the Kolkata Police on Tuesday.

Two eminent doctors, Dr Kunal Sarkar and Dr Subarna Goswami, went to the headquarters of the Kolkata Police on Monday, responding to the notices issued to them for similar reasons. Their lawyers and a large number of senior doctors of the city accompanied them in a procession on a road adjacent to the police headquarters.

“We are anguished over the way we had to lose a 31-year-old doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. But we also have an obligation to our patients and the society at large,” Dr Sarkar told journalists before entering the police headquarters. Dr Goswami said that police had summoned him and Dr Sarkar on some baseless allegation.

Like Ray, Dr Sarkar, and Dr Goswami, over 275 others received notices from the Kolkata Police for allegedly revealing the identity of the victim and for posting misleading information on social media about the rape and the murder of the young doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the city.

Ray posted on X that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had taken over the probe into the case on August 14, should take Vineet Goyal, the commissioner of Kolkata Police, and Sandip Ghosh, who was removed from the post of RGKMCH principal after the incident, into custody and interrogate them to know who had floated the theory of suicide and why.

Ghosh has been repeatedly questioned by the CBI for hours since Friday but has not been arrested. After the body of the young doctor was found at the seminar hall of the RGKMCH’s Department of Chest Medicine on August 9, Ghosh allegedly asked an assistant superintendent of the college to inform her parents that she had died by suicide.

“Why (was the) wall of (the) hall demolished, who patronised (Sanjay) Roy to be so powerful? Why (was the) sniffer dog used after 3 days? 100s of such questions. Make them (Ghosh and Goyal) speak,” Ray posted on X.

The Rajya Sabha MP is one of the few voices within the TMC raising questions about the investigation into the case.

After receiving the notice from Kolkata Police, he posted on X Rabindranath Tagore’s famous song: “ami bhoy karbo na… (I will not be afraid…)”. He also called for a protest against the “arbitrary arrests” of some supporters of the city’s rival football clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal during the protest against the rape and the murder of the young doctor.

The Kolkata Police already stated that the scene of the crime remained ‘intact’ even after the vandalism at the RGKMCH by a gang of goons in the early hours of August 15. The cops also said that the sniffer dogs had been sent to the scene immediately after the recovery of the body on August 9 and then again on August 12.

Sanjay Roy, who was arrested by Kolkata Police for raping and murdering the doctor, has been a civic volunteer (a contractual employee of the law-enforcing agency). He was a frequent visitor to the RGKMCH, was allegedly very influential, and had links with the rackets that extorted money from patients to ensure admission to the hospital.