Supreme Court Hands Over Monitoring of RG Kar Rape-Murder Probe to Calcutta High Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday transferred the monitoring of the investigation into the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to the Calcutta High Court and directed that status reports filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) be provided to the victim’s father.

The order was passed in a suo motu case initiated by the apex court following the August 2023 incident, which triggered widespread protests by doctors across the country over workplace safety, as the crime occurred while the victim was on duty.

A bench comprising Justices M.M. Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma said the matter would be better monitored by the Calcutta High Court, which is already hearing a petition filed by the victim’s parents.

“We refer the entire matter to a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, with a request to the Chief Justice to place it before an appropriate bench,” the court said.

In January this year, a Sealdah court sentenced the main accused, Sanjay Roy, to life imprisonment. The CBI, however, has continued to investigate the possible involvement of others in the case.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, supported the transfer. Senior advocate Karuna Nundy, representing the victim’s father, requested that the three CBI status reports submitted to the Supreme Court in sealed cover be shared with the family.

Mehta said the Code of Criminal Procedure permits the investigation report to be supplied to the victim, and the court subsequently directed its registry to provide the status reports to the victim’s father and to transmit the case records to the Calcutta High Court.

The 34-year-old convict, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police at the time of the crime, has been sentenced to remain in prison for life.

The victim’s father had approached the Supreme Court seeking continued monitoring of the probe and a deeper investigation into what he described as “grey areas.” The CBI, in its chargesheet, had referred to the alleged roles of RG Kar’s former principal Sandip Ghosh and former officer-in-charge Abhijit Mondal, who were arrested but later released on bail after no supplementary chargesheet was filed against them.

Following the incident, the Supreme Court had also constituted a National Task Force to recommend measures to improve working conditions and ensure the safety and well-being of doctors across the country.