Kolkata murder case: CBI to conduct psycho-analysis test of accused

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday sent a team of experts from Delhi’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to carry out a psycho-analysis test on Sanjay Roy, the prime accused in the brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Roy, a civic volunteer working with the Kolkata Police, was arrested on Saturday, a day after the doctor’s body was found in the seminar hall in the chest department of the state-run hospital between 3 am and 5 am.

The accused, who is a trained boxer, got close to a few senior police officers over the years, following which he was moved to the Kolkata Police Welfare Board and posted at the police outpost at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, PTI reported.

Here are the top updates unfolding in connection with the gruesome murder, that has triggered a massive nationwide outrage.

1. The CBI questioned Sandip Ghosh, ex-principal of the RG Kar Medical College Hospital for the second consecutive day. He was also questioned on Friday from 9:30 pm to 1:40 am. According to a PTI report, Ghosh was asked by the CBI on his first reaction on getting the news of the doctor’s death, whom he instructed to inform her family and how and who contacted the police.

2. Separate teams of the CBI also reached the crime scene at the RG Kar hospital and the barrack of the Kolkata Police’s Armed Forces fourth battalion in Salt Lake, where the arrested prime accused, civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, was putting up, PTI reported.

3. At RG Kar hospital, the CBI investigators collected samples and sent those to the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory for testing, an officer said. “At the KP barrack, the team spoke to the policemen who are staying there and enquired about the accused’s movements on Friday morning. They took the details of when Roy returned to the barrack and what he did after reaching there,” the officer told PTI.

4. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, listing a series of demands in wake of the doctor’s murder in Kolkata. The top doctors’ body has sought a Central Act incorporating the amendments of 2020 in the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the draft “The Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property Bill 2019).

5. Opposition CPI(M) in Bengal alleged that the vandalism at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was an attempt to “cover up the truth”. In a post on X, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “This vandalism on doctors protesting against the horrific rape and murder of a fellow doctor in RG Kar Medical College is a disgraceful attempt to silence justice and cover up the truth”.

6. Protests by medical professionals continue across the length and breadth of the country against the brutal rape and murder in Kolkata. Major private hospitals in Delhi joined the protest on Saturday, shutting down their OPDs, elective surgeries and IPD services.

7. The Mamata Banerjee government has introduced a new safety programme for the women working at night in the state. It includes separate designated restrooms with toilets for women at workplaces, women volunteers named ‘Rattirer Shaathi’ and safe zones to be identified with CCTV surveillance.

8. Earlier in the day, the health ministry had urged the protesting doctors to resume work, assuring that it will form a panel to recommend measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals.

9. Asha Devi, the mother of 2012 Delhi gangrape accused ‘Nirbhaya’, demanded Mamata Banerjee’s resignation over the incident. “Mamata Banerjee is protesting to divert people’s attention from this issue. She herself is a woman. She should have taken strict action against the culprits while discharging her responsibility as the head of the state. She should resign because she has failed to handle the situation,” Asha Devi told PTI.

10. The Kolkata Police, which is probing the large-scale vandalism at R G Kar hospital in the early hours of August 15, said that the arrest figure in connection with the violence currently stands at 30.