The ‘cover-up’ in Kolkata: Unanswered questions, a police diary, and suspect’s murky past

It could’ve been an ordinary Thursday night for her after a 36-hour shift. 

She cheered for Neeraj Chopra with her four colleagues while watching the Olympics javelin finals and relishing a meal she ordered online. It was a third-floor seminar room of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run facility in north Kolkata. Neeraj grabbed silver. The others left. She dozed off but an intern woke her up at 3 am to show a report. She went back to sleep again.  

But the next morning, the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was found dead with at least 10 injury marks. Her naked body on a blue mattress, blood oozing out of her eyes and private parts. The hospital initially told her family that she died by suicide, but the injuries and the crime scene had signs of a last-minute battle. 

The case has now been handed over to the CBI by Calcutta High Court amid outrage, mounting pressure by hundreds of striking doctors across the country, and questions over the role played by the West Bengal police and hospital authorities. 

A CBI special team, led by joint director V Chandrasekhar, landed in Kolkata on Wednesday morning and swung into action. One group collected evidence from the police, another took the arrested suspect in the agency’s custody and conducted his medical test, and a third group, led by Chandrasekhar, visited the crime spot. 

Hearing five petitions, including one by the victim’s family, the court had noted on Tuesday that there “appears to be no significant progress” in the probe “even after a lapse of five days”. The court had also pointed to the lack of initiative to record statements of the hospital hierarchy as well as the case being registered initially as an unnatural death.

The court’s decision had come a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed the police to wrap up the investigation by August 18 to avoid a CBI handover and three days after the arrest of the accused, Sanjay, a civic volunteer with a chequered past.

But could it all have been avoided?

Last seen alive

The only child to a small garment trader in Kolkata’s northern outskirts, the trainee was on duty for 36 hours at the chest and pulmonary medicine ward on the third floor of the hospital’s emergency building. 

She last spoke to her homemaker mother around 11.30 pm on August 9. A routine practice before dinner. The case diary submitted before the high court and handed over to the CBI mentioned that she showed no sign of any discomfort. Around 10.30 pm, her boyfriend called her but the conversation couldn’t go beyond a few seconds as she was busy attending patients.

She ordered food through an online delivery platform, and around 12 midnight, she along with four others – one intern, one house staffer and two PGT doctors – went to the seminar room for dinner.

“They watched the javelin throw event…and cheered for India’s Neeraj Chopra. Around 1.30 am on August 10, the others left and the PGT doctor decided to sleep inside the seminar room which has only one entry-door without any bolt from inside and outside,” said a Kolkata police officer quoting the case diary. The door had a lock but it was open as women doctors on night-shift use the room to rest as there is no retiring room designated for them, the officer said.

When an intern came to show a report, she woke up drowsy, and told to show it to someone else, the officer added.

“Around 9.30 am on August 10, a doctor from the chest department first saw the victim’s body on the bed, her left leg partially hanging and her jeans and inner wear lying next to the body. He informed the others and the hospital authorities,” said another officer of the Kolkata police’s homicide wing.  

The crime scene

The 40x30 ft room has a 50-strong seating capacity. One has to walk through a corridor monitored by a CCTV camera after coming out of the elevator and pass through the nursing department to reach it.

There is an elevated platform with a podium where the victim and her colleagues had dinner. Next to the platform is a Fowler’s bed with a white pillow, white bedsheet and a wooden bench with a cushion. The victim chose another bed behind a pillar on the northern side of the room. “It seems she preferred the bed for the little privacy offered by the pillar’s position. She was found with her head at the eastern and legs at the western directions,” said a hospital staffer from the chest department.     

“She was lying over a blue mattress. She was in half-naked condition. One jeans pant and a brown inner pant were lying near the left side of the body. I found a hair clip near the vagina and a broken spectacle near the body,” the magistrate wrote in the inquest report.

The inquest process was conducted in the presence of two women doctors as witnesses. The report mentioned about 10 observations, suggesting brutal assault. Bleeding from both eyes, mouth, vagina, and with injuries over the face, nail, hands and abdomen.

Inside the police probe and suspect’s arrest

It was first the policemen from the hospital outpost who reached the spot and subsequently informed the Tallah police station under whose jurisdiction the healthcare facility falls. A team of officers arrived who were shortly joined by sleuths of the homicide wing. Experts from the forensic department arrived around 11.30 am. 

Police found a Bluetooth earphone near the body. A case of unnatural death case was first registered with the local police station, before it was converted to a rape and murder case on the basis of the complaint lodged by the victim’s parents.

Police collected CCTV footage and set up 15 computer screens inside a hospital room to examine the visuals. A total of five persons, who were on night duty with the victim, were segregated and interrogated separately, according to police sources.

“We followed the process of elimination. As the statements of the five corroborated with each other, we kept them out of suspicion. During re-examination of the process, we zeroed in on one person wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt, who was seen walking along the corridor on the third floor which leads to the seminar room with a Bluetooth enabled earphone hanging on his shoulder around 4 am. The same person was seen coming out but this time the earphone was not seen on his shoulder,” said an officer.

“One of the policemen of the hospital outpost identified the person as Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer who used to frequent the hospital. He gave us his cellphone number, and the location of the tower, from which the handset was receiving signal, showed he was in the police barrack in Salt Lake. We sent a team and picked him up,” said a police officer.

During the interrogation in the late hours of August 10, Sanjay said he went to the hospital to see one of the patients known to him, but he could not identify the patient, sources said.

“When we asked where his earphone was, he said he lost it. We then switched on the Bluetooth option of his cellphone and found it was paired with the earphone from the seminar room. It was enough to realise Sanjay was the man we were looking for. We arrested him,” said the officer.

The forensic experts collected samples of skin from the victim’s fingernails and found injuries on Sanjay’s body. They collected samples from Sanjay’s body after obtaining court permission and sent it to the forensic department to ascertain whether it matched with the samples collected from the victim’s fingernails, sources said.

“We had to hand over the case to the CBI before the forensic reports arrived. If the report matches, it will be clinching evidence in the court of law against Sanjay,” said the officer.

The culprit   

Sanjay was described as a blot on his family by his mother, sister, and neighbours. He is the only brother among three siblings. His elder sister is an assistant sub-inspector in the Kolkata police and his younger sister is a civic volunteer.

“I don’t want to talk about him. He is a blot on our family’s history. I cannot mention a single good quality about him. If he is given capital punishment, we will not go to collect his body,” said the suspect’s ASI sister, a resident of Bhawanipur in south Kolkata.

Known to be an alcohol addict, Sanjay had joined the Kolkata police as a civic volunteer in 2019. He became close to several officials from the south division of Kolkata police, and was subsequently attached to the police welfare board, formed by lower-rank personnel to look after families of police officials in crisis, sources said. He used to visit hospitals frequently whenever the members of the board or their families needed hospitalisation.

“For us, he is a criminal of the highest order,” said Vineet Goyal, commissioner of Kolkata police. But he remained mum on Sanjay’s role as a civic volunteer.

In 2022, Sanjay’s pregnant wife lodged a complaint against him for allegedly beating her up at the Kalighat police station, but the police treated the complaint as a general diary entry instead of filing an FIR and arresting him.

“Had he been arrested two years ago, the PGT doctor might have been alive today,” said a police officer.

Sanjay’s wife died last year after a battle with cancer.

An officer from the Kalighat police station said he was not aware of what happened two years ago. “The officer should have conducted an inquiry to ascertain the course of lawful action. I don’t know whether this practice was followed.”

Unanswered questions  

In their petition, the victim’s parents claimed that they were first told by the hospital authorities that their daughter was unwell, and later that she died by suicide.

“We received a call at about 10.53 am on August 10 and the caller identified himself as the assistant superintendent of the hospital. He informed us that she was unwell. Approximately 22 minutes later, at about 11.15 am, the same person called informing that she committed suicide,” the petition said, alleging that they were not permitted to see the body and made to wait for three hours.

“The petitioners suspect that this delay was intentional and for reasons best known,” the division bench said.

The decision to register an unnatural death case after the injury inflicted body of the victim was found also raised questions.

“It is submitted that under normal circumstances, a case of unnatural death is registered when there is no complaint. When the deceased victim was a doctor working in the hospital, it is rather surprising as to why the principal/hospital did not lodge a formal complaint. This, in our view, was a serious lapse, giving room for suspicion,” the division bench said in its order.

Arunabha Chowdhury, the head of the department, chest and pulmonary medicine, where the victim was on duty, said the assistant superintendent should not have informed the parents of the deceased with a conclusive remark. “He should have waited for the police report,” he said.

Newslaundry reached out to the hospital assistant superintendent for comment. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Meanwhile, as the TMC government continues to draw flak from the BJP and Congress, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has urged the protesting doctors to end their strike and alleged that a section is spreading false news on social media platforms. 

“It is being spread on social media platforms that police tried to shield culprits. It is a blatant lie. Police engaged 165 personnel to examine the CCTV footage and identified the suspect within 12 hours. They took time to collect evidence against him.  I was continuously in touch with the police commissioner on the day of the victim’s funeral,” she said.