RG Kar case: Bench headed by new CJI to hear matter today

Kolkata, Dec 10 (IANS) Exactly after 33 days the crucial matter related to the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata will come up for hearing at a bench headed by the new Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday.

The second judge in the new bench to hear the matter is Justice Sanjay Kumar. The last time the matter was heard at the apex court was on November 7 by a three-judge bench of then Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

The hearing in the matter at the apex court will be taking place when already the trial process in the rape and murder crime has started at a special court in Kolkata, where the hearing is taking place on a fast-track and daily basis.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is slated to submit a fresh status report on the progress of the investigation in the matter at the two-judge bench of the apex court on Tuesday. This would be the seventh status report to be submitted by the CBI in the matter to the apex court.

CBI in the first charge sheet has identified civic volunteer Sanjay Roy as the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder case. However, at the same time, the CBI are also probing the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abjijit Mondal on charges of misleading the investigation and tampering with the evidence while the initial probe was being carried out by Kolkata Police.

On Monday, a special court in Kolkata extended the judicial custody of Ghosh and Mondal till December 13. The CBI counsel informed the court that the investigating officials are currently in the process of examining the footage collected from the CCTVs installed at the R.G. Kar.

The doctor’s body was found in mysterious circumstances on August 9 morning in the seminar hall of the RG Kar premises.

–IANS

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