The Mamata Banerjee government and the West Bengal Police are facing a lot of criticism in the case of rape and brutal murder of a female trainee doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud reprimanded the West Bengal government and police in the second day of hearing today. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the Mamata government in the case, was seen getting stuck on the questions of the Supreme Court several times. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was presenting arguments on behalf of the prosecution, drew the attention of the Supreme Court to many serious flaws. At the same time, the Chief Justice himself raised tough questions on the issue of conducting postmortem without challan. Justice Chandrachud asked how can a postmortem be done without a challan? Let us take a look at the arguments made in the Supreme Court today.
The time is also not mentioned in the post-mortem report.
Advocate: There is no information on who did the videography. There is also no information on whether the CD was worth writing or rewriting. All the doctors present were from the North Bengal lobby.
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Sibal: There was a judicial magistrate there.
Advocate: This is irrelevant. There are only 10 entries in the General Diary from 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm! Or is this also fake? The history of fake GD entries in West Bengal starts from 1983.
Questions were also raised regarding postmortem
After these questions raised about the postmortem of the doctor's body, serious questions were also raised about the collection of evidence. Let us see below what arguments were given in this case.
SG: Looking at the injuries, the report said there was medical evidence of forceful penetration of the genitals and the cause of death was strangulation.
Chief Justice: CBI is aware of the discrepancies pointed out by you.
Advocate: Vaginal swabs should have been preserved at 4 degrees centigrade, but this was not done.
SG: In rape and murder cases, the first five hours are very crucial. We cannot go in and out and if we come to investigate after five days, we have our own challenges.
Sibal: We have presented the entire video.
Advocate: (The dead doctor's) legs were at a 90-degree angle and that cannot happen without a broken hip. Were the X-ray plates handed over?
Chief Justice: Was the letter given at the time of handing over the body read? We cannot get into this quarrel.
SG: I am investigating.
Advocate: Please see the body challan.
Sibal: The challan for the body has been filed and handed over to the victim's family. I am unable to get the documents immediately.
Chief Justice: When the body is sent for postmortem after examination, there should be something for the doctors to see.
Chief Justice: This is important because there is a column showing what clothes and items were sent with the body. We want to see that.
Advocate: This is part of the case diary.
Chief Justice: CBI should answer or the state government should answer us.
Chief Justice: The PMR team will not accept the body without the challan, so we want to see it.
Sibal: Please give us time. We will submit it to the court. What I have been told is that the CJM has filled it himself and sent it.
Chief Justice: Was the post-mortem performed without a request form (challan)?
SG: This cannot happen. This is a statutory requirement.
How did the post-mortem happen without a challan?
Justice J.B. Pardiwala, who was part of the bench, raised the issue of challan. He said that if the challan is missing from the documents, then there is something wrong.
Justice Pardiwala: The third column of the PM report mentions the constable carrying the form. There is no mention of the challan. If this document is missing then something is wrong.
Sibal: We don't have it right now.
Chief Justice: We will present it next Wednesday. The challan has been apprised to the court after the post-mortem. The CBI said that the duly filled challan is not part of the case file handed over to the CBI. In view of the above, the lawyer appearing for one of the petitioners produced the form before the High Court. The form is not with senior advocate Sibal but with Aastha Sharma. A copy of the duly filled form will be produced on the next date of hearing.
Today is the second day of hearing in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court also raised several other important points during the hearing. The court said that the CBI has some clues in the case and it will submit a new status report by September 17 next week. The disappearance of documents related to sending the doctor's body for postmortem is a matter of serious concern. The court questioned how the postmortem took place without a challan? It asked why the West Bengal Police delayed filing an FIR by 14 hours? The Supreme Court also ordered the removal of the photos of the deceased doctor from social media.
Earlier on August 22, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Kolkata Police for the delay in registering a case of unnatural death of the doctor. The court said that this is extremely worrying. The court had also questioned the sequence of events and the timing of its procedural formalities. The court had also constituted a 10-member National Task Force (NTF) to prepare a protocol to ensure the safety of doctors and other health professionals.
