The fourth hearing in the brutal rape and murder of the 31-year-old PGT doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital of Kolkata, West Bengal, concludes for the day.
Besides taking cognisance of the fresh report filed by the CBI — the SC had asked for the same in the previous hearing on September 9 — the apex court pulled up the West Bengal government on the appointment of civic volunteers for assurance of safety and also underscored that rules pertaining to safety of women force at the workplace cannot lead to gender differentiation.
Key observation from today's hearing:
- The Bench took note of the CBI’s status report and said any disclosure from the same might disrupt the probe.
- The CBI has revealed to the court that the manner in which the body was sent for post-mortem and samples were seized is appalling. The Bench, too. noted that the information on this is disturbing.
- The CBI is probing the matter and we have to give the agency adequate time. The agency replied to the court's questions, including about the challan that was missing in the last hearing. It is also probing if the crime scene was compromised and evidence tampered with.
- Noting that photographs of the victim continue to be circulated on social media, the Supreme Court said the law does not allow this. Hence, the bench directed Wikipedia to remove any information pertaining to the victim's identity.
- The court noted that 'civic volunteers' cannot be employed for assurance of safety (the key accused in the case Sanjay Roy was a civic volunteers) and the matter of safety and security should entirely be dealt by the police.
- The court said that the CBI has submitted that Kolkata Police gave them CCTV footage with a total duration of 27 minutes. However, Kapil Sibal, advocating the cause of the state government contested this and said the city police had shared 7-8 hours of footage and that all they had.
- Commenting on the guidelines issued by the state government for the safety of doctors, the Bench noted that the West Bengal government should focus on the safety of women doctors than reducing their work hours.
- The Bench had asked the State to put in motion the safety measures for doctors at work without waiting for the Supreme Court’s National Task Force to submit its report on reforms. It gave the West Bengal government a week to take necessary steps to create a degree of confidence in the minds of the doctors that concerns regarding their safety and security are given importance.
- The court had directed the District Collectors and Superintendents of Police in each district across West Bengal to “take stock of the situation” at every public hospital and medical college and ensure that steps are taken for the safety of women doctors, including the provision of separate duty rooms, toilets and installation of CCTVs.
The developments in court come hours after a big win for the junior doctors protesting against the August 9 rape-murder incident and financial irregularities in the West Bengal health services.
Following a meeting with the junior doctors' representatives, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced late last night that they had agreed to most of the doctors' demands. She said Kolkata police chief Vineet Goyal had agreed to resign and Deputy Commissioner of Police, North, Abhishek Gupta would also be removed.
The state government has also agreed to remove two senior health department officials.
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