Kolkata Police on Friday defended its probe in the trainee doctor rape-murder case as protests continue across the nation demanding strict punishment for the culprits. Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal denied any attempt to cover-up the murder-rape case that happened last week.
“We will be held liable if we did anything wrong. Let the CBI come to a conclusion. Stop rumour mongering,” Goyal said, adding that a ‘relentless campaign’ has been launched against the Kolkata Police.
“Now another agency has taken up the probe. Have trust in them. If we (police) have done anything wrong or deliberately shielded or destroyed any evidence then we are liable,” he said. “Why are people so impatient? Why is rumour mongering still going on?” Goyal questioned.
He also addressed the rising speculations that more than one person may have been involved in the crime. “I could not arrest anyone without evidence just to satisfy the collective conscience. Lot of experts are questioning the work done by Kolkata Police, alleging gang and involvement of multiple people, but there has to be scientific evidence to support these charges,” he said.
“I cannot arrest the person who was on duty and we are not protecting anyone but waiting for the evidence,” he said.
The neighbours of the victim’s family told CNN-News18 that the family and people living the neighbourhood located in 24 Parganas do not believe arrested accused Sanjay Roy committed the crime alone.
Roy, who worked as a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police’s Disaster Management Group since 2019, had access to all departments within the facility as he was assigned to the police outpost at the hospital.
Senior police officers in Kolkata have told CNN-News18 that accused Sanjay Roy has confessed that he acted alone.
“He throttled her in sleep to the point that she lost consciousness and was in no position to defend herself initially. The accused was aware that she was alone in the room,” an official from the probe team told CNN-News18 when asked how one person could inflict such brutality and force.
During the presser, the commissioner also questioned medical experts who claimed after seeing the post-mortem report that 150ml of semen was found in the body of the victim, indicating gangrape.
“The autopsy says 150mg – which is the unit of weight and not liquid. Any student of medicine would know that this referred to the weight of the organ (uterus) and foreign matter and not semen alone, as was wrongly claimed,” a senior police official said.
“DNA sampling, forensic… Everything was done. We would have figured out how many people are involved (if the case had not gone to CBI). There is nothing to hide in this incident but still rumours are going on,” Goyal said.
Another senior officer hinted that doctors and experts who spread the 150ml theory on media outlets could be summoned for questioning.
The cops also dismissed allegations that the parents of the deceased were made to wait for three hours which gave suspects time to alter the crime scene. “The body was discovered at 9:30, at around 10:10 the police received a call about a body being found at RG Kar,” a senior cop said.
“The family was called soon after by the hospital. The initial message about suicide was not conveyed by police,” another officer explained, adding that in the interim 40 minutes ‘a lot of’ hospital staff and doctors visited the seminar room, including those who were protesting.
The police said they videographed the entire crime scene, as mandated by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and claimed that the seminar hall was untouched during the vandalism that occurred on August 14 following the midnight march.
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