Kolkata doctor rape-murder: Post-mortem report highlights brutal assault, confirms multiple injuries, signs of struggle

KOLKATA: A Kolkata Police civic volunteer, Sanjay Roy, was taken into custody on Saturday in connection with the brutal rape and murder of a second-year postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Hospital. The arrest came just six hours after the police force had formed a seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the case.

Read also: Kolkata Doctor Rape-Murder Case Live: IMA’s nationwide strike begins, here’s what’s open and closed; RG Kar Hospital vandalism victims recall night of horror

On Sunday, investigators discovered the most compelling evidence against Sanjay Roy, the prime suspect in the rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor. Traces of blood and skin found under the victim’s fingernails perfectly matched Roy’s DNA and corresponded to the injuries he sustained during the attack, said a senior cop.

According to a senior police officer, the victim, despite being half-asleep, had put up a desperate fight against her attacker, and it was this struggle that provided investigators with the crucial evidence they needed to link Roy to the crime.

What is the sequence of events?

9.30 am: The assistant superintendent calls the victim’s parents and reports the incident as a suicide.

10.10 am: The inspector-in-charge of the R.G. Kar police outpost is alerted.

10.30 am: Tala police station sends an alert to CP, DCP, JCP, and addl CP.

11.30 am: Police officers up to the rank of additional CP arrive at the scene.

1.00 pm: The victim’s parents arrive, and a forensic team examines the seminar room, the crime scene. The parents claim they are initially denied access.

1.10 pm: The parents are granted access to the seminar room. Students identify the body, and a cloth partition is put up.

3.55 pm: The victim’s father requests an inquest by a judicial magistrate.

4.20 pm: The judicial magistrate arrives, conducts a videographed inquest, and the woman’s mother signs the inquest report.

5.30 pm: The body is taken out for postmortem.

6.10 pm to 7.10 pm: The postmortem is completed.

What does the postmortem report say?

The report said the death was due to smothering and throttling.

Prima facie, death has been due to gagging and there were multiple signs of injuries and struggle on the body.

The mouth and throat were constantly pressed to prevent screaming. The throat was strangled to suffocate. The thyroid cartilage broke due to this strangulation.

There were blood stains on the face, eyes and face, scratch marks on various parts of the body and bleeding from the private parts.

There were injuries on the lips, abdomen, right hand and fingers while a collar bone was broken.

There are aberration marks and bruise marks on the victim’s face, on the eyes till the neck.

The scratch marks on the woman’s face, likely caused by the accused’s fingernails, suggest that she desperately tried to fight back.

The report mentions that the accused “got certain advantage as the victim was in deep sleep at the time of the attack.”

She had tried to resist, and there were deep mark injuries and scratches on the hands of the accused as well.

The report, however, said that there have been no fracture or breakage of the collar bone or pelvis as reported earlier in the initial phase of observation.

What are preliminary forensic findings?

The scratch mark injuries on Sanjay’s body matched with the skin and blood samples collected from the nails of the victim.

Fact check: What do the claims and police responses reveal about the case?

A source from the Kolkata Police revealed that a claim circulating involves semen from three individuals being found on the doctor’s body. However, a police officer said, “It is impossible to distinguish semen from three individuals with the naked eye during an autopsy.” Medical science defines what an adult male is capable of, and what is being circulated is scientifically impossible, source added.

The second claim circulating on social media is that the woman’s collarbone and pelvic guard were broken. However, police say that based on the autopsy report, she did not have any broken bones.

The third claim is that the Kolkata Police informed the family about a possible suicide, but police say the family confirmed the call did not come from them.

Fourthly, there is a rumor that a police officer offered a large sum of money to silence the murdered doctor’s father. However, the police clarified that, following the Nirbhaya case, the state is required to provide financial compensation to the families of victims of murder, acid attacks, rape, and molestation.

“Rumours don’t help but harm probe,” the Kolkata Police wrote on their social media page after handing over all probe details to the CBI. They stated that they had done their best over the past four days and would continue to assist the CBI moving forward.

The police also emphasised that certain “misinformation” being spread is either “scientifically” or “legally” impossible.

Kolkata doctor death: Who is Sanjay Roy? Civic volunteer arrested in RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case

The murder has triggered widespread outrage with doctors and nurses protesting in Kolkata and other parts of India. Outpatient services and routine surgeries were severely disrupted in government hospitals nationwide on Monday as resident doctors protested the rape and murder of a colleague at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. The demonstrations were most prominent in Delhi and Kolkata, which became the focal points of the protest.

.The protesting doctors are calling for a CBI investigation into the incident and the urgent implementation of a central law to safeguard healthcare workers from violence.

Sandip Ghosh, the principal of RG Kar Medical College, has resigned from his post in the wake of the incident. Within four hours, he was appointed as the principal of Calcutta National Medical College (CNMC).

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has warned the Kolkata police that the investigation will be transferred to the CBI if they are unable to solve the case by Sunday.

CBI team arrives in Kolkata to begin investigation

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team has arrived in Kolkata to take over the investigation into the rape and murder of a female trainee doctor at a state-run medical college, as ordered by the Calcutta high court.

Hours after the CBI filed an FIR in the RG Kar rape-murder case in New Delhi, the agency took custody of primary suspect, Sanjay Roy. They took him for a medical examination and began interrogating him at its CGO Complex office.

Senior officials from New Delhi reached Kolkata Tuesday night and formed three teams. One team took custody of the accused, another visited RG Kar with forensic experts from CFSL Delhi, and the third team reviewed call records and other data from the victim’s mobile phone.

Sources revealed that the CBI is investigating the victim’s activities in the hours leading up to her death, focusing on the people she interacted with or communicated. Kolkata Police has already provided related documents, case diary, CCTV footage from the hospital and items from the seizure list, including a Bluetooth earphone wire found at the crime scene.

Initially, the accused was taken to Command Hospital, but they informed the team that they could not conduct the examination there. He was then transferred to BR Singh Hospital in Sealdah, where the medical process was completed. The CBI team, along with members of the Central Forensic Laboratory, arrived at RG Kar Hospital around 3.40 pm and proceeded directly to the seminar hall where the young doctor’s body was found on Friday.

On Thursday, CBI officials visited the home of the doctor who was allegedly raped and murdered at a hospital in Kolkata. As part of their ongoing investigation, they spoke with her parents and gathered information about the timing of the call they received from the hospital, notifying them of their daughter’s untimely death.

The officers also inquired about the victim’s friends and whether she had mentioned any issues or concerns at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where she was a postgraduate trainee doctor.

In addition to speaking with the victim’s parents, the CBI interrogated five doctors from the hospital, as well as the former medical superintendent-cum-vice-principal (MSVP), principal, and the head of the Chest Department where the victim’s body was discovered. They also spoke with the officer-in-charge of the Tala police station, which has jurisdiction over the hospital.

As part of their investigation, the CBI has requested detailed information about Civic Volunteer Sanjay Roy, who was arrested after the victim’s body was found on Friday. This includes his call detail record and mobile tower location, among other relevant data.

CBI officers on Friday questioned former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh at their office late into the night. The development came a while after Calcutta High Court posted Ghosh’s plea, seeking protection for him and his family, for hearing on Monday.

Ghosh had resigned as principal on Monday, only to be put in charge of another state-run medical college and hospital around four hours later. A day later, the high court, expressing shock, had commented on Ghosh’s “power”, and ordered him to go on a long leave.

On Friday, he was stopped by CBI officers near City Centre, Salt Lake, asked to get out of his car, and taken to the CBI office at the CGO Complex. At the time of going to press, more than 10 hours after he was taken in, he was still being questioned.

Courtesy : TOI

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