“It is Rape and not Gang-rape…”; CBI to Court but wants to probe ‘larger conspiracy’ behind RG Kar horror

CBI on Tuesday informed the special court in Kolkata that so far they have evidence indicating the 31 year old PGT medical student of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (MCH) was brutalised and murdered by one individual, that it was an act of rape and not an instance of gang-rape but they were still probing that angle. This came, as the agency had brought back Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar and Abhijit Mondal, OC Tala police station for production and had sought three more days of their custody. “We fear there could be larger conspiracy”, claimed the CBI counsel before the Judge during production. The duo has been accused of tampering evidences and booked in the same case of rape and murder. While Sandip Ghosh was previously arrested by the central agency on charges of irregularities and alleged corruption, he was later shown re-arrested in the case of rape and murder where so far only one accused Sanjoy Rai was named.

Magistrate Debashis Day had enquired almost seven times asking CBI if they had found “one piece of evidence to corroborate that both Ghosh and Mondal had conspired in the rape and murder?”. Counsel maintained that while the act could have been ‘probably’ committed by one but they were probing the angle of “alleged destruction of evidences at the behest of someone and there could be people involved in larger conspiracy”. The counsel however later added that while they are not saying they were part of the rape and murder, but “they were not ruling it out”.

The Judge even though had granted three days of custody to both Ghosh and Mondal to CBI till September 30, but had expressed dismay that “if they were not involved in the rape and murder then why where they attached to the same FIR”. CBI claimed that the FIR in the case was registered around 14 hours after the incident was informed to the police station and besides that search and seizures were completed even before filing of the FIR. CBI alleged that there could have been an attempt to delay the probe.


Tirthankar Roy, the counsel of Abhijit Mondal while referring to charges against the officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station, called them at best dereliction of duty, if true but questioned the merit in attaching him in the rape and murder case. The judge again asked “have you found anything that shows that Ghosh and Mondal were either actively or passively involved in the rape and murder?”. The agency claimed that they have retrieved the CCTV footages from the police station and call records of the two. The probe may demand cross-verification of their statements and also joint interrogation in order to unearth “the larger conspiracy”, claimed CBI