Bengal govt suspends 3 IPS officers over ‘lapses’ RG Kar rape-murder case probe: 'Offered money to victim's parents'

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the state government suspended three senior IPS officers on Friday for their alleged mishandling and dereliction of duty during the initial phase of investigation into the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case.

While speaking at the state secretariat, Adhikari said the suspension of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and ex-deputy commissioners Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta was ordered in the wake of a departmental probe initiated against them.

"The Bengal government suspended three police officers for ‘lapses’ in the investigation of the RG Kar rape-murder case. The government will start a departmental probe against ex-Kolkata CP Vineet Goyal, two other officers", said CM Suvendu Adhikari.

According to news agency PTI, the chief minister said that the three officers were allegedly involved in the "mishandling" of the case, "offering money to the victim's parents as a bribe" and addressing an "unauthorised press conference" in connection with the gruesome crime, which took place in August, 2024.

Adhikari clarified that the state government was not conducting the actual investigation of the crime, which is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and argued in court.

The CM said that the disciplinary proceedings and departmental inquiry would be spearheaded by the state home secretary under the guidance of the chief secretary.

RG Kar rape-murder case

A postgraduate trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was raped and murdered at her workplace on August 9, 2024. According to reports, two of the doctor's colleagues claimed that they found her lying unconscious on the mattress in a semi-naked condition.

The body of the postgraduate trainee with severe injury marks all over was found inside the seminar hall of the state-run hospital’s chest department on Friday morning (August 9). The preliminary autopsy report suggested she was subjected to violent sexual assault.

The assistant superintendent of the hospital had reportedly informed the victim’s parents over the phone that their daughter had taken ill. On the way to the hospital, the parents were told that their daughter had died by suicide.

When RG Kar victim's parents reached the hospital, they were made to wait for hours in the room of the chest department’s head, before they were allowed to see their daughter.

Lallantop, India Today TV's channel, spoke to the parents and relatives of the victim. “The parents pleaded before them (hospital authorities) to show them their daughter's face. But still, they were made to wait for three hours,” the relative said.

“After three hours, they allowed the father to go inside and see her body. He was only allowed to click a picture, which he showed us when he came outside. She had no clothes on her body. Her legs were 90 degrees apart... this cannot happen unless the pelvic girdle breaks, which means she was torn apart,” the relative told Lallantop.

Around 3.30 pm, the then Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal took the parents to the scene of crime, the New Indian Express reported.

A CBI court in Kolkata's Sealdah had convicted former civic volunteer Sanjay Roy in the RG Kar rape and murder case. Roy, however, repeated his claim that he was being framed.