RG Kar rape-murder case: Court to pronounce verdict on January 18

The CBI during the entire phase of the investigation filed just one charge sheet in the case where it identified Civic volunteer Sanjay Roy as the 'sole prime accused' in the rape and murder crime

Kolkata: The crucial verdict on the rape and murder of a woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata will be delivered at a special court in the city on Saturday.

Civic volunteer Sanjay Roy is the ‘sole prime accused’ in the rape and murder crime. Any observations of the judge of the special court, besides pronouncing the conviction of Roy, will throw any light on the aspect of much-talked-about aspect of tampering and altering the evidence during the initial phase of investigation carried by Kolkata Police before the case was handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Calcutta High Court.

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The CBI during the entire phase of the investigation filed just one charge sheet in the case where it identified Roy as the ‘sole prime accused’ in the rape and murder crime.

Roy was initially arrested by the Kolkata Police just a day after the body of the victim doctor was recovered from a seminar hall of R.G. Kar premises in the morning of August 2024.

Although the CBI arrested the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal on charges of tampering and altering the evidence, both were granted ‘default bail’ later by the same special court since the CBI failed to file supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest.

The process of framing charges against Roy at the special court was completed on November 4, 2024, and, henceforth, the trial process started on November 11.

The entire trial process was conducted in camera and within the closed courtroom. During the trial process, the statements of a total of 50 witnesses were recorded, which included the parents of the victim, investigating officials of both CBI and Kolkata Police, forensic experts and some doctors and colleagues of the victim at R.G. Kar.

In the initial days after the recovery of the body and during the investigation by CBI, first, the entire West Bengal and subsequently the entire country witnessed a unity of the representatives from the medical fraternity, civil society and common people in hitting the streets demanding justice for the victim referred by protesters as ‘Abhaya (the fearless).

Gradually, protests were reported from other parts of the globe by the associations of Non-Resident Indians settled there. The theory and suspicions of tampering with the evidence gained grounds on midnight of August 14 last year, when a group of anti-socials vandalized the emergency department of R.G. Kar, at a time when lakhs of people assembled on the streets in different pockets of the state at midnight protesting and demanding justice for Abhaya.

The event of vandalism diverted the entire media attention from the spontaneous protests.