The CBI has arrested former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh and a Kolkata police officer in connection with its ongoing rape-murder probe. The development came even as junior doctors continued their protests and a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee failed yet again on Saturday evening. The Central Bureau of Investigation added rape-murder charges against the already-detained Ghosh on Saturday and nabbed Abhijeet Mondol — the Tala police station officer in-charge.
The arrests were made over delays in the registration of FIR and missing evidence in RG Kar rape probe. The trainee doctor was discovered dead in the morning with her parents filing a complaint by 6:00 pm on August 9. However it was only around 11:45 pm (after the post mortem was done) that the FIR was registered. The probe agency had also told the Supreme Court earlier that the place of occurrence had been altered.
An on-duty doctor was raped and murdered in state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month, sparking pan-India protests. Ghosh – then the principal of the institute – has been accused of aiding the destruction of key evidence by ordering a demolition drive soon after the murder. The ousted official has also been booked by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case that took cognisance of a CBI FIR.
Meanwhile Tala Police Station has been accused of involvement in ‘chronological discrepancies’. The CBI said that Mondal had tried to suppress information and played a role in ‘destruction of evidence and in misleading investigation’. The probe agency said that the official — who has been quizzed eight times by the CBI — had delivered ‘inconsistent’ statements.
The arrests were hailed by protesting junior doctors who have sought strict action against Ghosh.
“We have been demanding the arrest of the former principal of the college Sandip Ghosh and Abhijit Mondal, officer-in-charge of Tala police station for their involvement in tampering with the evidence. We are very happy as the CBI has arrested them. CBI should arrest others also who have tampered with the evidence,” a junior doctor told ANI.
(With inpus from agencies)
