New Delhi: The Supreme Court has handed over the security of Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital to the Central Industrial Security Force as it heard the suo motu case of the brutal rape and murder of a doctor there. It also asked the Bengal government to not unleash its power on peaceful protesters.
“Let us deal with them with great sensitivity. This is a moment for national catharsis,” the CJI said.
LiveLaw has reported Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has having said that it is “extremely concerning” how photographs and video clips showing her body have spread all over media. Arguing for the Bengal government, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, said that those photos were taken and circulated before the police reached.
The apex court brought up the conduct of the former principal of the college, Sandip Ghosh, the delay in the registration of a first information report, and how it came to be that Ghosh was given charge of another key hospital hours after he resigned from R.G. Kar.
“After the crime was detected in the early hours of the morning, the principal of the hospital tries to pass this off as a suicide. The parents are not allowed to see the body for a few hours…” CJI said.
Although the victim’s parents have also made the same claim to The Wire, Kolkata Police and Sibal today have claimed that these are false and that the hospital did not try to pass her death off as suicide.
When Sibal said that an “unnatural death” FIR was registered “immediately” and claimed that there was no delay in the registration of the FIR, the CJI – according to LiveLaw – said that the autopsy was done between 1 pm and 4.45 pm, the body was handed over to the parents at about 8.30 pm for cremation, but the FIR was registered only at 11.45 pm.
“FIR is registered at 11.45 at night? Nobody at the hospital registers the FIR? What were the authorities at the hospital doing? Doesn’t autopsy reveal the victim was raped and murdered?…What was the principal doing? Why first it was attempted to pass off as suicide?,” CJI asked further.
Sibal reiterated Kolkata Police’s stand that the main accused is a civic worker.
The court also slammed the state police over the vandalisation of the hospital. Counsel for ‘Protect the Warriors’, an organisation of doctors, Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh, said that the mob had threatened women doctors at that time.
“Hospital is invaded by the mob! Critical facilities were damaged. What was the police doing? The first thing the police have to do is to secure the crime scene,” he said, according to LiveLaw.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, for the Union government, said that the mob could not have gathered without police connivance.
Justice Pardiwala asked if the same police can be trusted to provide security to the doctors, LiveLaw reported. When the CJI said that the court will order CISF cover, Sibal did not object.
Justice Manoj Misra was also on the bench.
