A letter addressed to the Public Works Department (PWD) and signed by the former principal of Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, surfaced online on Thursday (September 5, 2024), stirring fresh controversy over whether the crime scene, where a doctor was raped and murdered on August 9, was tampered after the discovery of the victim’s body.
The letter was addressed to the executive engineer of the civil and electrical wings of the PWD and was written to commission “repair/renovation/reconstruction” of on-duty doctors’ rooms and separate attached toilets of all departments of the medical college “on urgent basis”. It was dated August 10, a day after the rape and murder took place in a seminar room on the fourth floor of the emergency building of the hospital.
“The issue is already discussed and resolved in the meeting with Principal Secretary… and Director of Medical Education, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal,” the letter reads.
Both at the beginning and the end of the letter, Dr. Ghosh is seen reiterating to the recipients to “do the needful immediately”.
Dr. Ghosh was taken into eight-day police custody on Tuesday (September 3 2024), and was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday over alleged corruption and financial misconduct at the hospital.
Last month, the Calcutta High Court had raised questions over the hurried renovation work near the seminar hall where the victim’s body was found. On August 16, the Division Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya had said, “What was the urgency?... We will shift patients to other hospitals, and close the (R.G. Kar) hospital. That will be the best.”
Junior doctors at the hospital had protested against the repair work around the crime scene. A postgraduate trainee doctor told The Hindu that construction had started in the chest medicine department of the hospital, in the vicinity of the crime scene, within days of the incident.
“When the students and resident doctors found out about the reconstruction work, we started guarding the area till the case was handed over to the CBI,” he said. “How did renovation work start around the crime scene while the matter is still being investigated? This is a huge failure.”
In response to the recent developments, Trinamool Congress leader and State Education Minister Bratya Basu on Thursday said, “If evidence has indeed been tampered with, that is a grave matter. The CBI themselves should bring this to the fore.”
Editorial |Death for rape: On Bengal’s Aparajita Bill
Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sukanta Majumdar slammed the Kolkata Police and wrote on X, “Despite allegations from colleagues and protesters about tampering with the crime scene, the Police Commissioner denied it.” He said the letter is a confirmation that the washroom was demolished the day after the death “to destroy evidence”. “Such actions couldn’t have happened without the instructions of the Health Minister and the failed Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. Shameful!” he wrote.
Earlier, allegations of tampering evidence were levelled against the Kolkata Police when a video surfaced online showing a crowd inside the seminar hall moments after the body was found. Although police had said that “a 40-foot area” around the victim’s body was cordoned off with hospital curtains, the victim’s parents have contested these claims.
Published - September 06, 2024 12:52 am IST
