Two years after a 31-year-old on-duty trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the premises of the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, former Panihati MLA Nirmal Ghosh was arrested from Odisha on Thursday. The girl's family hails from Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, with her mother, Ratna Debnath, being the current BJP Panihati MLA.
The former Trinamool Congress MLA was accused of taking the body of the R.G. Kar trainee doctor through a green corridor, with the help of police, to the cremation ground and cremating it in a hurry according to Hindu rituals. The former Panihati MLA also went to the administrative building next to the morgue to meet the principal of NRS hospital.
Ghosh is being brought to Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas by road and will be produced in court on Friday. The victim's father has filed a fresh complaint at Khardah police station under Barrackpore Police Commissionerate after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, on August 9 (the death anniversary of the victim), said that justice will be delivered and that a new case will be initiated.
"Please start a new case, and action will be taken," said Suvendu Adhikari, adding that people have not forgotten Abhaya and he will do whatever is in his capacity to deliver justice.
"There is one place where the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) had no scope of conducting an investigation: the cremation ground," added Adhikari. Ghosh was questioned by the CBI about his role at the cremation ground.
The CM named Ghosh, Somnath Dey (the former Panihati chairman) and Sanjib Mukherjee (a councillor of Panihati Municipality) as those involved in the hurried cremation of the victim. Their names were also mentioned in the FIR. The prime accused was a civic volunteer, Sanjay Roy, who was arrested and given a life sentence.
"The FIR has been filed. Police said they will cooperate," said the victim's father after filing the police complaint.
The rape and murder case made headlines, with the former TMC government under Mamata Banerjee being accused of covering up the case. It played a major role in the TMC’s defeat in the assembly elections this year.
