SC to hear on Monday suo moto RG Kar doctor rape-murder case

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Monday the matter where it has taken suo moto cognisance of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. 

As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar will resume hearing the suo moto case on March 17.

In the previous hearing, the CJI Khanna-led Bench directed hospitals and medical colleges across the country to not penalise doctors and medical professionals, who participated in protests against the ghastly rape and murder case, but had returned to their duty pursuant to the top court’s appeal.

In August last year, during the hearing on the suo moto case titled ‘Alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, and related issues’, the apex court had urged the protesting medical fraternity to resume work at the earliest and assured them that no adverse action would be taken against them for participating in protests.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is expected to file its supplementary charge sheet at a special court in Kolkata this month, detailing the different aspects of the evidence tampering angle. The Central agency officials are trying their best to submit the supplementary charge sheet at the special court in Kolkata before the scheduled hearing at the Supreme Court.

In October, the CBI filed its first charge sheet against Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with Kolkata Police, in the alleged rape and murder case. In the charge sheet, the CBI did not rule out the possibility of a larger conspiracy behind the macabre crime that prompted the alleged events of tampering and altering of evidence during the initial phase of the investigation, which was carried out by Kolkata Police.

Besides Roy, two others arrested by the CBI officials in the matter are R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital's former Principal, Sandip Ghosh, and the former SHO of Tala Police Station, Abhijit Mondal.

RG Kar comes under the jurisdiction of the Tala Police Station. The main charges against Ghosh and Mondal are for misleading the investigation when the Kolkata Police were probing the matter before it was handed over to the CBI by the Calcutta High Court.

Both have been accused of tampering with evidence in the case. While pronouncing the quantum of the sentence, special court judge Anirban Das said the CBI’s contention that Roy's offence in the matter was "the rarest and rare crimes" was not tenable. Hence, the judge observed that instead of the “death penalty”, Roy, an erstwhile civic volunteer attached to Kolkata Police, be sentenced to “life imprisonment”. Apart from that, a fine of Rs 50,000 was also imposed on Roy.

The special court, at the same time, directed the West Bengal government to pay a compensation of Rs 17 lakh to the family of the deceased victim. It observed that since the victim was raped and murdered at her workplace, which is a state-government entity, the West Bengal government is legally bound to pay compensation to the victim’s family.

The process of the framing of charges was completed on November 4, 2024, exactly 87 days after the body of the woman junior doctor was discovered at a seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9 last year.

Taking suo moto cognisance of the crime, the Supreme Court had termed the incident "horrific", which raises the "systemic issue of safety of doctors across the country".

"We are deeply concerned about the fact that there is an absence of safe conditions of work for young doctors across the country, particularly, public hospitals," it had said.

The apex court had ordered the formation of a National Task Force to suggest measures for the security of medical professionals across the country, observing that the safety of doctors is the "highest national concern".