West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the state government on Friday suspended three senior IPS officers for their alleged misbehavior and dereliction of duty during the initial phase of the investigation into the RG Kar Hospital rape case.
Speaking at the state secretariat, Adhikari said the suspension of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and former deputy commissioners Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta was ordered as a result of a ministerial inquiry launched against them.
“The Bengal government has suspended three police officers for ‘mistakes’ in the investigation of the RG Kara rape-murder case. The government will launch a departmental inquiry against ex-Kolkata CP Vineet Goyal, two other police officers,” said CM Suvendu Adhikari.
According to news agency PTI, the chief minister said the three officers were allegedly involved in “mishandling” the case, “offered money to the victim’s parents as bribe” and held an “unauthorized press conference” in connection with the gruesome crime that took place in August 2024.
Clarifying that the state government is not conducting a genuine investigation into the crime, which is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Adhikari argued in the court.
The CM said that the disciplinary proceedings and departmental inquiry will be conducted by the Home Secretary under the Chief Secretary.
RG Kar rape case
A post-graduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was raped and murdered at her workplace on August 9, 2024. According to reports, two of the doctor’s colleagues claimed to have found her lying unconscious on a mattress in a semi-naked state.
The body of a postgraduate trainee was found in the seminar hall of the thoracic department of the state hospital on Friday (August 9) morning with severe injuries all over. A preliminary autopsy report indicated that she had been subjected to a violent sexual assault.
The assistant superintendent of the hospital reportedly informed the victim’s parents over the phone that their daughter had fallen ill. On the way to the hospital, the parents were told that their daughter had died by suicide.
When the parents of victim RG Kar arrived at the hospital, they were made to wait for hours in the primary chest ward room before they were allowed to see their daughter.
Lallantop, the India Today TV channel spoke to the parents and relatives of the victims. “The parents begged them (hospital authorities) to show them their daughter’s face. But still they were made to wait for three hours,” said a relative.
“After three hours, they allowed the father to come in and see her body. He was only allowed to click the picture which he showed us when he came out. She had no clothes on her body. Her legs were 90 degrees apart… that can’t happen unless the pelvic girdle breaks, which means she was torn,” the relative told Lallantop.
At around 3.30 pm, then Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal took the parents to the crime scene, the New Indian Express reported.
A CBI court in Kolkata’s Sealdah has convicted former civic volunteer Sanjay Roy in the RG Kar rape and murder case. However, Roy reiterated his claim that he was being blamed.
