The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that any disclosure on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s probe into the rape and murder of a young doctor at a Kolkata hospital could compromise the process, stressing that it would not make detailed comments that would alert a person in doubt to up their guards.
“Making a disclosure today of what the CBI is investigating will jeopardise… the line which is taken by officials to unearth the truth… SHO [station house officer of Tala police station] has been arrested himself,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said after going through a status report the central agency submitted in court.
“Please send the message across that we are not making a detailed comment so that it should not put someone who is in doubt guards themselves….” he said and added that the CBI had touched upon the many concerns raised during earlier hearings in the court.
“We’ve seen the status report. CBI has responded to all the questions we had raised in the previous hearing too… The line of the further investigation of the Central Bureau of Investigation to unearth the actual truth of what happened,” he said.
The CJI said the central agency was looking into the fact whether the crime scene was altered amid fears of evidence destruction by the central agency, which took over the probe five days after the 31-year-old doctor’s body was found at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
“They are handicapped at this point because of the five-day delay,” Justice Chandrachud said.
On Tuesday, the CBI submitted a fresh status report in its investigation into the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case.
The central agency had arrested officer in charge of Tala Police Station, Abhijit Mondal, on September 14 for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of the trainee doctor on August 9.
On September 2, former principal of RG Kar Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, was arrested in connection with financial irregularities at the hospital.
WHAT CJI SAID ON CBI’s STATUS REPORT
“The status report dated September 17 has been filed by Shri Satyaveer Singh of the CBI,” the CJI said, adding, “During the hearing, we have heard learned counsel appearing on behalf of the parents of the deceased, the resident doctors and original petitioners before the High Court. We have explained that it would not be in interest of fair and complete investigation to disclose the leads being pursued by the CBI which will lead to the dislocation of investigation and tampering of evidence.”
“All counsels have agreed to the fact that there needs not be any further disclosures in the public domain. A letter dated September 12, addressed by the father of the victim, has been shared with CBI and has specific inputs on which investigation should be directed by the CBI,” he said.
“We are of the view that inputs of the father should be taken into note by the CBI and the Solicitor General (SG) assures that the CBI shall maintain contact with parents and assuage genuine concerns about the status of the investigation,” he added.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for the junior doctors, told the court, “We have names of the persons who were on the scene of the crime who had no business to be there. We can submit the names in a sealed cover to CBI. I am not making it public in light of concerns aired by the court.”
The medic’s body with severe injury marks was found on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day.
On August 13, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI, which started its investigation on August 14.
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