Discrepancies in a timeline submitted to the Supreme Court by the Kolkata Police on the happenings and police action taken on the rape and murder of 31-year old trainee doctor raises serious concerns and doubts if there were attempts to cover up facts. Though the hearing is not over yet, on Thursday, the Apex court came down heavily on the police for the long delay in filing an FIR in the case, and termed it “extremely disturbing”.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Kolkata Police (West Bengal government) told the court that his client followed "procedure to a tee". But the sequences did not tally with what has been claimed by the parents of the victim and the CBI.
According to the Kolkata Police timeline to the Supreme Court at 9:30am on August 9, a postgraduate trainee discovered the body of the victim in the seminar hall from a distance and informed colleagues and senior doctors. Hospital authorities were alerted.
Tala police station, the timeline claimed, was informed by the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital police outpost at 10:10am that a woman's "body in unconscious state" was lying on a wooden platform in the seminar room on the third floor of the emergency building, half naked. Police reached the crime spot and "secured the place at 10:30am".
Arguing before the Supreme Court on August 22, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on police saying "Doctors are informing police that there is an unconscious body", asked whether a doctor does not know if it is a dead body. Though police claimed the crime scene was secured at 10:30am on August 9 and later after the August 15 vandalism in the hospital also police said the crime spot was secure, the CBI, which is now investigating the case, have refuted it. Mehta, in his argument for CBI, told the upper court: “We entered the probe on the fifth day... The investigation itself was a challenge because the scene of offence was altered. The FIR was registered only after the cremation at 11:45pm.”
Police claimed in its timeline that at 10:52am the Assistant Superintendent of the hospital informed the victim's family and asked them to come immediately. The Homicide team reached the crime site at 11am, followed by photographer and videographer of the scientific wing of the detective department at 12:25pm. At 12:29pm the first photo of the body was taken. By then fingerprint and footprint experts, as also senior officers of Kolkata police reached the spot. Forensic team was also called.
Police timeline said an on duty doctor examined the victim at 12:47pm and declared her deceased. The parents of the victim arrived at 1 pm and were taken to the seminar room after 10 minutes.
However, the parents of the deceased doctor had told the Calcutta High Court that they received a call first at 10:53am from the assistant superintendent that their daughter was unwell and then another call at 11:15am saying their daughter died by suicide, which finds no mention in police timeline. The victim’s mother had told the media that they were made to wait for three hours, even as she begged to see her daughter’s body, though in Calcutta High Court the state government counsel claimed that they were not kept waiting.
According to the police timeline at 1:47pm the medical and death certificates of the victim were handed over to the police. Police officers noted injuries on the body, including on private parts, and recorded a case of unnatural death.
At 3pm the victim's family and colleagues demanded an inquest and post-mortem in the presence of a Judicial Magistrate and under videography, timeline to the Supreme Court said. Judicial Magistrate arrived at 4:10 pm and the inquest was carried out between 4:20pm and 4:40pm in the presence of family and colleagues of the victim. The procedure was videographed. Between 6.10pm and 7.10pm post-mortem was done by a board of forensic doctors in presence of Judicial Magistrate, family members and colleagues. The procedure was videographed.
Dog squad reached the spot at 8 pm and 3D mapping of the crime scene was also carried out. Between 8:30 and 10:45pm 40 exhibits were seized by the forensic team and the body was handed over to the family. FIR was registered based on the complaint by the victim's father under charges of rape and murder at 11:45pm.
The police also claimed that examination of 11 suspects had already begun on August 9, including four doctors who were on duty on the night of the crime and by 10 am on August 10 accused Sanjoy Roy was arrested "after his prolonged examination and confession of guilt".
But both the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court have questioned the delay in filing FIR and that too as an unnatural death case. The hospital authorities should have initiated a complaint, based on which FIR could have been filed. "Procedure is a separate issue, but the point remains. What is the reason the FIR is lodged almost 14 hours after the discovery of the (body). The most important thing is that the principal of the college should have come straight away to the college and directed the filing of the FIR," noted the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The three member bench also observed: "How was it that the post-mortem was conducted at 6:10pm on August 9 and yet the unnatural death information was sent to the Tala police station at 11:30pm on August 9? This is extremely disturbing."
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