Kolkata Trainee Doctor Murder Rape Case: You may have never heard before that a post-mortem was done first and an FIR was filed later. But this is probably the only case in which exactly this has happened. The body of a junior doctor from Kolkata was found at 6 am and her post-mortem was done at 4 pm. At 8:30 pm, the body was handed over to the family. And then at 11:45 pm, for the first time, an FIR was filed in this case for rape and murder.
Before we tell you about the ongoing action in the Kolkata case, let us first know what the experts’ opinion is on the entire incident and the filing of FIR after the action has been taken on it.
What do the experts say?
In this regard, the team of ‘Aaj Tak’ talked to retired Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police Pawan Jain. He said that generally whenever the police gets information about an unnatural death or an unusual death, it immediately informs the magistrate of the area and if the police reaches the spot and finds that a crime has been committed due to the circumstances, then it will immediately register a crime. But if the circumstances are such that it cannot be decided whether it is a case of murder, suicide or death due to some other reason, then in that situation a case will be registered. A crime will not be registered.
But if it is clear at first glance that it is a case of murder, a case of heinous crime or death in an accident, then a crime will also be registered in it. And along with the proceedings on the spot, the Panchayat Nama of the dead body will be made in the presence of two independent witnesses. If a crime or a heinous crime is committed in the normal process, then it should be registered so that tomorrow there is no chance that the police has delayed in registering the crime.
In this case, the former DGP of Uttar Pradesh says that this controversy has arisen that after the postmortem in the case of rape and murder of the doctor, the Calcutta police handed over the dead body to the family for last rites. After several hours, the FIR was registered. Action was initiated considering it an unnatural death. It was quite clear from the condition of the clothes on the body of the deceased doctor that she was raped and then murdered. The FIR given by the Assistant Professor of the Medical College was received at the police station, there is a delay of more than twelve hours in it. This is a big irregularity. In such incidents, postmortem is not done without an FIR.
Similarly, former DCP of Delhi Police’s Special Cell L.N. Rao says that usually by looking at the body one can guess whether it is a murder or an accident. Or suicide by self-inflicted injuries. This can be told by looking at the condition of the body. The IO who is present at the spot, sends the body for post-mortem and fills a form and writes the condition of the body in it. FIR is usually registered first. Where was the body found? A lot depends on this too.
Now let us talk about the negligence of the medical college and hospital management. What they did in this case of rape and murder is extremely shocking.
August 9, 2024, around 7 am
According to the call detail record, this was the exact time when the first call came from RG Kar Hospital to the hospital principal Dr. Sandeep Ghosh’s mobile. The caller was a staff of the hospital itself. He first informed Dr. Ghosh that the body of a trainee junior doctor posted in the Chest Medicine Department was lying in the seminar hall. After giving complete information, the call gets disconnected. In the next few minutes, the caller now sends a picture of the junior doctor’s body to Dr. Ghosh on WhatsApp. The body was still lying in the seminar hall. Dr. Sandeep Ghosh lives in Phoolbagan area, about half an hour away from RG Kar Hospital. He starts getting ready to go to the hospital only after getting the news.
On the other hand, the news of the dead body lying in the seminar hall had spread throughout the hospital by now. All the doctors, junior doctors, trainee doctors, medical staff and even the rest of the hospital staff had reached the seminar hall. But despite the presence of doctors and medical staff and knowing the importance of the crime scene, everyone knowingly or unknowingly kept erasing the evidence of the crime scene with their shoes, slippers and handprints. There was hardly anything around the dead body on which the crowd had not inadvertently left its marks. This was the moment when the evidence from the crime scene was tampered with the most.
Here, Dr. Sandeep Ghosh had reached the hospital at around 8 am after getting the information on phone. He also went straight to the seminar hall. The body of the junior doctor was still lying there. Since the doctors present in the hospital had already ascertained from the pulse and heartbeat that the junior doctor was no longer alive, that is why the body remained lying at its place. After talking to all his close people in the hospital, Dr. Ghosh himself informed the police about the body of the junior doctor for the first time at 9 am.
According to eyewitnesses, the body was first seen in the seminar hall at 6 am. The hospital’s principal Dr. Ghosh got information about the body at 7 am. However, he called the police at 9 am. This means that the police were informed about the body for the first time 3 hours after the body was seen.
August 9, 2024, 10:53 am
This was the time when the junior doctor’s mother was called for the first time from RG Kar Hospital. That is, 4 hours and 53 minutes after the body was found. The caller said that he was calling from RG Kar Hospital. After this, he said that your daughter has suddenly fallen ill. After this the phone got disconnected. The worried mother immediately called back on the same number and asked what happened to her daughter. The reply she got was that you should come to the hospital immediately. The phone got disconnected again. The mother called the same number again. This time the person who picked up the phone said that he is the Assistant Superintendent. Your daughter has committed suicide. After saying this, the phone got disconnected again.
On hearing the news of their daughter’s suicide, the distraught parents immediately urge and rush to the hospital. The distance between their house and the hospital was about an hour. The parents reached the hospital around 12 noon. But no hospital staff was letting them meet their daughter. During this time, the parents kept pleading to show them their daughter’s face at least once, but no one did.
August 9, 2024, 3 pm
About 3 hours after reaching the hospital, at 3 pm, the parents were shown their daughter’s body for the first time. The junior doctor’s mother said that her daughter’s pants were open. There was only one piece of cloth on her body, her hands were broken, blood was oozing from her eyes and mouth. On seeing the body, the mother told the doctors on the spot that this is not suicide but murder. My daughter has been murdered.
The condition of the dead body was such that anyone could easily tell that it was a murder by looking at it. Then why did the hospital lie to the junior doctor’s mother twice in the morning? The first lie was that he was ill and the second was that he had committed suicide. So when the Kolkata Police initially questioned the assistant superintendent who had told this to the junior doctor’s mother, he defended himself by saying that since the doctor had died, they did not want to tell the truth directly to the family. That is why they were asked to come to the hospital.
But the question here is that if the doctor’s death was to be hidden, then why did they talk about suicide the second time after saying that she was ill in the first call? The assistant superintendent had no answer to this. Later, the junior doctor’s father was also shown the seminar hall from where his daughter’s body was found. The father alleged that he suspected that his daughter was not murdered in the seminar hall, but after killing her, the body was brought here and dumped.
August 9, 2024, around 4 pm
The postmortem of the junior doctor’s body was conducted in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital itself. On whose orders was this done? The CBI team is also looking for the answer to why this was done.
August 9, 2024, 8 pm
After the postmortem, the body of the junior doctor was handed over to his family members at the same time in the night. However, the police and the hospital team were also present with the family members the whole time. When the family members took the body, all of them also went with them.
August 9, 2024, 11:45 pm
And this was the time when, after all the proceedings in this sensational incident were completed, the police registered a case of rape and murder. Till 9 pm, the entire story of the death of the junior doctor was within the four walls of RG Kar Hospital. But the story that came out through the media after this was incomplete. Overall, Kolkata Police did not take the case and investigation in the way it should have been taken in the beginning. Therefore, by Saturday, the news of the doctor’s death and rape slowly went out of the four walls of the hospital and reached Kolkata and then the whole country. Dozens of theories started floating in the air simultaneously.