Supreme Court to Review Kolkata Doctor's Tragic Case Amid Protests

The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and will hear the case on August 20. The incident has sparked nationwide protests, and the Calcutta High Court transferred the investigation to the CBI following failures by state authorities.

The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, and will hear the case on August 20.

According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear a matter titled 'In Re: Alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata and related issue'.

The alleged rape and murder of the junior doctor in a seminar hall of the state-run hospital has sparked nationwide protests. The body of the postgraduate trainee with severe injury marks was found inside the seminar hall of the hospital's chest department on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police the next day in connection with the case. The Calcutta High Court on August 13 ordered the transfer of the probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which started its investigation on August 14.

The high court had ordered the transfer of the probe to the CBI while hearing petitions, including one from the victim's parents, praying for a court-monitored investigation. Observing that the mob violence in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was an absolute failure of state machinery, the high court had on August 16 directed the police and hospital authorities to file affidavits on the situation. It was hard to believe that police intelligence did not have information about the gathering of 7,000 people, stated the court, when the state's lawyer mentioned the mob had assembled at the hospital earlier on Thursday.