New Delhi, Sep 17 The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, on Tuesday filed the status report in the Supreme Court.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwal and Justice Manoj Mishra said that it has seen the line of investigation being carried out by the CBI and is convinced that it is attempting to unearth the absolute truth.
The Apex Court had taken suo moto cognizance of the matter of the gruesome incident and also upheld the Calcutta High Court’s order which had handed over the probe to the CBI.
The Supreme Court had formed a high power committee to look into the safety and security and other medical staff across all hospitals in India.
The Top Court had directed that the committee’s suggestions should to be implemented Pan –India basis.
Today during the hearing, CBI filed a fresh Status report of its investigation.
The court observed that the CBI report says that the SHO has been arrested and several pieces of important evidence has emerged about destruction of the crime scene.
The bench said that the CBI has responded to the manner in which post mortem of the victim was done and addressed the doubts expressed on non-filling of the form needed for the post mortem.
The bench also observed that the CBI has also looked into the role of not only those arrested but those who are complicit to the case.
On September 12, after a letter of the victim’s father expressing several concerns, the SC asked the CBI to look into the leads given by him on the crime and investigate them. CBI said it has taken care of some of the concerns and would examine all of the concerns and take suitable action.
“Several important evidence has been obtained on the basis of the letter written by victim’s father to the CBI, which raised several issues who was handicapped by the delay of 5 days in commencing investigation, the Supreme court said that the agency must look into all aspects.
When a counsel pointed out the shoddy manner in which the body was sent for post-mortem and samples seized, the CJI said, “What the CBI has revealed is worse and disturbing. We are ourselves disturbed by it.”
Senior doctors allege that financial irregularities at RG Kar hospital is intricately linked to the rape-murder incident.
SC asked the CBI to file status report on probe into both the rape-murder as well as financial irregularities on the next date.
The CJI asked the investigating agency as to what was the time for filing the chargesheet ?
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta replied, 60 days.
Justice Pardiwala intervened and said it is 90 days.
Seniore Advocate Meenakshi Arora clarified, it is 60 days for rape as per the new law.. but since it is rape and murder, it is 90 days.
CJI said that the status report of CBI shows disclosing the investigation will jeopardize the line of investigation and let me assure you that it is unearth the absolute truth and what shall emerge further than who is arrested.
Apart from the principal, SHO is also arrested. So let us wait. We have seen the status report.. CBI has replied to issues such as whether challan in statutory form was submitted for postmortem and what was given exactly and it is exploring if there is a likelihood of scene of crime being tampered, complicity of any other person.. evidence being destroyed.. etc.. apart from this ..it is unwise for us to disclose anything further, Justice Chandrachud said.
The SG said “My worry is that disclosure etc may not help the accused persons eventually in chargesheet also and we are very careful.. anything that happens the benefit must not go to the accused persons.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising appearing for junior doctors said, “We have names of persons who were on the scene of the crime who had no business to be there.We can submit the names in sealed cover to CBI. I am not making it public in light of concerns aired by court.
The CJI said that the father of the deceased has made some suggestions on the leads that should be taken for investigation.. We are not making it public, we will say that these are valuable inputs and CBI should look into this. CBI is itself handicapped by the five-day delay, he said.
Advocate Vrinda Grover said that the parents had accompanied the CBI to carry out the investigation. Amidst lot of information swirling they do not know what to believe.
The SG said, “I accept the suggestion and they must be informed.. This is the minimum an investigating agency should do for the girl who has been raped and killed.
The SG pointed out that In Wikipedia the photo and name of the girl is still there.
The CJI said, “We will mention this in order.”
Senior Advocate Guruswamy said that Wikipedia had said that we refuse to be censored but that is mandated by the law we will mention in our order.
The SC accused the Kolkata police saying that it gave the footage of 27 minutes only, now they use an instrument to block a device so that hash value does not change and questioned why the jeans and other clothes of the victim were not sent for post mortem.
The CJI asked the SG, why can’t they summon Kolkata police?.. and get the footage and you need to see whether hash value changed or not.. CBI has to ensure this.. your investigating officer has to ensure this, Justice Chandrachud said.
One Advocate appearing for the parents said, it has to be seen whether footage has been overwritten or not.. the camera was also not placed at the entry of seminar room.. someone could have gone from the other side.. the dead body challan is at rest since it was shown to the High Court.
The Court after hearing the matter from all the concerned parties relisted the matter to the week commencing November 4.
