“Extremely Disturbing…”: Supreme Court Questions Kolkata Police Over Timeline of FIR Registry in RG Kar Doctor's Rape and Murder

The Supreme Court on Thursday termed the Kolkata Police’s delay in registering the unnatural death of the PGT doctor who was raped and murdered at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital as “Extremely Disturbing”. The top court also urged the protesting doctors to resume work and assured them that no adverse action would be taken after they rejoin back to their duties.

Questioning the sequence and timing of legal formalities conducted by police, a bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra stated that it was very surprising that the postmortem of the deceased was conducted on August 9 between 6.10 pm to 7.10 pm before the registration of an unnatural death case. "How was it that the post-mortem was conducted at 6.10 pm on August 9 and yet the unnatural death information is sent to Tala police station at 11.30 pm on August 9? This is extremely disturbing”, said the bench.

Justice Pardiwala raised concerns about the timing of the postmortem report, while senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing West Bengal, argued that the report was grounded in the case diary and is backed by videography having a timeline minute by minute. "When you start performing the Post Mortem, it means that its case of unnatural death, UD 861/24 was registered at 23:20 hours, 9th August the GD entry and FIR recorded at 11:45 PM Hours, is this true? This is very surprising that post-mortem precedes registration of the UD. The entire procedure that has been followed by the State police, is something that I have not come across in my 30 years of career”, remarked Justice Pardiwala expressing skepticism about the timing of the postmortem and the recording of the unnatural death.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), told the apex court that the most shocking fact is that the FIR was registered at 11:45 pm after the PGT doctor was cremated. "State police told parents it was suicide, then they said it was murder. Victim's friend suspected cover-up and insisted on videography,” said Mehta to the Bench.

As the hearing commenced, the top court was told by the counsel for resident doctors at AIIMS Nagpur that they are being victimised for protesting over the R G Kar rape and murder case. The bench assured all doctor’s associations that the National Task Force will hear all stakeholders. "Once they get back to duty, we will prevail upon authorities to not take adverse action. How will public health infrastructure run if the doctors do not work? If there is difficulty after that, come to us… but let them first report to work”, urged the bench, while the court said that its heart goes out to all patients visiting public hospitals.

The gruesome assault and murder of the junior doctor has sparked nationwide protests. Her body was found with severe injury marks inside the seminar hall of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital's chest department. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day on August 10. On August 13, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI, which started its investigation on August 14.​​