Supreme Court During a hearing on the rape and murder of a doctor in Somotu on Tuesday RG card medical college After being named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Kolkata Hospitals and Hospitals directed the West Bengal government to inform the measures being taken so that citizen volunteers are no longer deployed in hospitals, police stations and schools. Sanjay Roy as the main defendant in the case. industrial and commercial bank In its fifth status report, it noted that the agency was investigating the role “others” played in the case.
The court also asked the West Bengal government to provide details of the recruitment process of citizen volunteers, one of whom is the main accused in the case. “It is a fine process to grant political support to unproven persons,” the top court said, seeking to provide the affidavit within three weeks. The state government has recruited over 1,500 citizen volunteers under the ‘Ratire Sathi’ scheme and the judge asked the state government not to deploy these people in hospitals, police stations and schools till further orders.
Taking into account the charge sheet filed in court on October 7 against accused Sanjay Roy and Sealdah, the court directed the CBI to submit a further status report on the investigation into the case within three weeks.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, submitted the latest status report to a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The court also said that meetings of the national task force should be held regularly and directed it to formulate recommendations regarding the safety of doctors in Kolkata within three weeks.
On September 30, the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the West Bengal government’s slow progress in installing CCTVs, constructing toilets and separate rest rooms in government medical colleges. The court set a deadline of October 15 for the state government to complete the ongoing work.
On September 17, the Supreme Court expressed disquiet over the findings in the CBI case status report but refused to divulge details lest it jeopardize the ongoing investigation.
Earlier, on September 9, the Supreme Court had expressed concern over the missing ‘challan’ (an important document required to hand over the body of a junior doctor for autopsy) from the records submitted to the court. The court asked the West Bengal government to provide a report on the matter.
On August 22, the Supreme Court condemned the Kolkata police for delaying in registering the unnatural death case of a female doctor, calling it “extremely disturbing”. The court also questioned the sequence of events and the timing of procedural formalities.
To ensure the safety of doctors and other healthcare professionals, the Supreme Court formed a 10-member national task force to work out protocols.
The Supreme Court criticized the state government for allegedly delaying filing of an FIR and allowing thousands of people to vandalize state-run facilities, calling the incident “horrible”.
The incident, which left the doctor dead and bruised, sparked nationwide protests.
On the second day of the incident, a citizen volunteer related to the case was arrested by the Kolkata police.
On August 13, the Calcutta High Court handed over the investigation from the Calcutta Police to the CBI, which started the investigation on August 14.
