KOLKATA: A single-judge bench of Calcutta High Court, from Monday, will hear the plea of the parents of R.G. Kar rape and murder victim questioning the progress of the investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the crime.
With the Supreme Court, last week, permitting a parallel hearing in the matter at Calcutta High Court, the counsels of the parents approached the high court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh with a fresh petition.
The matter was admitted by Justice Ghosh and accordingly, Monday was fixed as the first day of the fresh hearing in the matter.
Earlier, when the victim’s parents approached Justice Ghosh’s bench, the latter was not agreeable to hear the matter since it was already being heard at the apex court. However, now with the apex court's approval parallel hearings can happen both at the apex court and the court, besides the one already continuing at a special court in Kolkata.
Since the apex court, last week, approved the parallel hearing at the Calcutta High Court, the CBI officials investigating the matter have accelerated the pace of their investigation. In the last week, the investigating officials summoned and interrogated seven nursing staff and eight security personnel who were on duty at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital on the night when the ghastly rape and murder of the woman doctor took place.
Sources aware of the development said the findings from the interrogations will be incorporated in the supplementary charge sheet on the angle of evidence tampering and altering in the case that the central agency is expected to file at the special court in Kolkata soon.
The body of the junior woman doctor was recovered from a seminar hall within the premises of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital on the morning of August 9 last year.
The initial probe was being conducted by a special investigation team of Kolkata Police, whose members also arrested the sole convict in the case and civic volunteer Sanjay Roy. However, later, the probe was handed over to the CBI following an order of the Calcutta High Court.
Recently, a special court convicted Roy and sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, the CBI has challenged this in the Calcutta High Court and demanded the death penalty for Roy.
Now, the CBI is carrying on the investigation in the angle of tampering with and altering the evidence during the initial phase of investigation by Kolkata Police and is expected to submit a supplementary charge sheet in the matter soon.