You ask a protester how justice will be done and most respond: “When the perpetrators of this crime are punished.” And this is where it gets complicated. For the notion of justice in a case of such magnitude — and one that has national reverberations — could be more than one, if not many.
Kolkata Police have arrested the main accused, Sanjay Roy (a volunteer with a civic force in Bengal that aids police), within 12 hours of the the discovery of the 31-year-old trainee doctor’s body. CBI, a fortnight after taking over the rape and murder case, has not arrested anyone else. The agency had questioned close to 100 witnesses. It has subjected RG Kar former principal Sandip Ghosh, four doctors and two aides of Roy to lie detector test. Yet, only Roy is in custody.
Evidence gathered so far has not established the role of anyone else in the crime. But this is where the biggest challenge for CBI lies. How do you ensure justice, which is not just done, but seen to have been done? Even if the politics playing out in Bengal is left aside, the macabre incident has spawned debates. At the centre of it lies the ghastly crime that snuffed out a young, promising life. But what has branched out from there is a series of questions — some new, many old yet unsolved. The RG Kar incident has put the functioning of the premier government-run hospital under the scanner, landed its controversial and powerful former principal in trouble, sparked allegations of a bigger conspiracy and cover-up, reignited the debate on women’s security at workplace, and also called for scrutiny of the safety of doctors in hospitals, among many others.
Social Media and Experts
Social media chatter, sound bytes from victim’s neighbours and studio analysis from medical experts have led to different narratives:
1) A neighbour of the victim gave a sound byte to the media, saying the body was lying with both legs were almost 90 degrees apart.
She went on to say that this cannot happen till the pelvic girdle is broken. “Clearly it is not one person’s job,” she said. The autopsy, however, said there was no fracture.
2) At least two senior doctors who claimed to have seen the autopsy report told the media that 150 mg of semen was found on the deceased and, therefore, this has to be a case of gangrape. Kolkata Police summoned the two doctors for spreading misinformation. The post-mortem report mentioned the presence of white, thick liquid in endocervical canal and with the weight of 151 gm. Police say this was the total weight of the organ + liquid. A CBI official too dismissed the 150 mg semen theory.
3) There were allegations that vandalism at RG Kar Hospital on August 14 during a midnight protest was meant to destroy evidence at the scene of crime. Scenes of absolute destruction at the emergency ward gave further impetus to the theory that there were attempts to save the real culprit. The Kolkata Police Commissioner later stressed that the vandals could not reach the crime scene — believed to be seminar hall on the fourth floor.
Meanwhile, CBI, in its status report to the Supreme Court, said that “everything was altered” by the time they took up the case five days after the crime, raising doubts. Together, these theories appear to have convinced many in Kolkata and across the country that justice is not about punishing Roy alone.
Former Principal’s Role
Revelations about former principal Sandip Ghosh’s corrupt practices and reign of terror at RG Kar have added to the sense of injustice. CBI has questioned the former “strongman” for almost two weeks. He has been subjected to polygraph test in the rape-murder case, but the agency has not arrested him.
There are serious questions about the role of the Ghosh-led management in floating the suicide theory (the first call to the victim’s family allegedly said she had killed herself), not calling the police for 40 minutes after the discovery of the body, and not allowing parents to see the body for three hours after their arrival. Nonetheless, the real trouble for Ghosh is likely to be in a corruption case that authorities have launched in the aftermath of the incident.
CBI is confident of filing its chargesheet in the rape-murder case soon. Preliminary evidence suggests that the noose might tighten around Ghosh when the Nizam Palace team of CBI starts quizzing him for forgery, cheating, bribery and criminal conspiracy. And then there is the 33-year-old rape-murder accused, Roy, who too have been subjected to lie-detection polygraph test and caught on CCTV approaching the crime scene before the incident.
But no matter the outcome in the case — who is charged, who is found guilty — will there truly be a sense justice with so many narratives at play? For that very idea of justice appears to have different meanings in the RG Kar case, which has morphed into a national debate with many branches. And this is not the first such case. And surely not the last.
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