OPINION | CBI Probe in Kolkata Doctor's Death May Expose A Much Bigger, Darker Truth

With the investigation into the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the CBI may have entered a rabbit hole.

From the different theories swirling around in West Bengal, the detectives might stumble on a statewide fake drug racket in medical colleges and hospitals, a cash-or-sex-for-marks scam, a prostitution ring, or even a supply of videos involving necrophilia.

However bizarre the theories may sound, two things are increasingly looking plausible:

1. Given the extent of brutalities carried out against her, doctors’ statements on the amount of semen found inside her, and that nobody even heard a scream, it smells not like a regular rape but a pre-meditated gang rape and murder. The sole accused so far, Sanjay Roy, known to be a ‘whacko’ in the hospital circle who was also a civic volunteer for Kolkata police, could not have pulled it off on his own.
2. Given the alacrity with which cover-ups were attempted — from initially calling it suicide to transferring the controversial RG Kar principal Dr Sandip Ghosh to Calcutta National Medical College in the same post, and from renovating parts of the hospital right after the horror to goons entering RG Kar on August 14 night to vandalise and possibly destroy vital evidence — it seems there is something much bigger at play. Does the darkest of crimes lead to some powerful political doors in West Bengal? Time may tell.

The question facing the CBI investigation right now is whether the murder was to cover the rape or the rape was to distract from the murder.

Was the young doctor on to something much bigger? Is RG Kar one of the nerve centres of something utterly dark? After all, all kinds of news reports have kept surfacing for years.

• Porn ring behind student’s murder at RG Kar Medical College In Kolkata — The Times of India headline on November 7, 2001.
• RG Kar housestaff commits suicide inside hospital — TOI, February 6, 2003.
• Room locked from inside: Decomposed body of RG Kar prof found at home — TOI, October 24, 2016.
• Kolkata: Junior doctor jumps off 6th floor of Covid-19 hospital, dies — Indian Express, May 1, 2020.
• Medical student dies during trekking in Uttarakhand — TOI, January 22, 2023.
• RG Kar intern dies of ‘drug overdose’ — TOI, August 13, 2023.

The question is bound to arise now: Are these seemingly unconnected events across years actually tied by a common string?

The CBI has already reportedly interrogated ex-RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh twice. It is apparently asking him the questions:

• How did he know about the incident?
• Who first informed him about it?
• What measures did he take after getting the news?
• Did he go to the crime scene right after being informed?
• On whose orders did the renovation work start next to the seminar hall right after the horrific events?
• Did the police ask Dr Ghosh to sanitise the crime scene and the area around it?
• Why was the renovation taken up so hastily?

The CBI team will likely have to make its way through thickets of deception and deliberately thrown roadblocks. After all, Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal has seen scam after scam, from Rose Valley to SSC, Saradha to Narada, coal to cow, Covid relief materials to OBC quota recruitment.

The battered, cold body of the hapless young doctor may have some macabre truths to tell.

Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.