Kolkata rape-murder: CBI arrests ex-RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, police station in-charge Abhijit Mandal for 'destroying evidence'

KOLKATA: CBI on Saturday night arrested former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh and Tala police station officer-in-charge (OC) Abhijit Mandal in connection with the rape and murder of a 31-year-old PGT doctor at the hospital on Aug 9.

Ghosh had already been arrested by CBI in connection with financial irregularities at the hospital and is currently in judicial custody. Both men were arrested for destruction of evidence.

The arrests are the first by CBI in connection with the rape-murder and come 35 days after civic volunteer Sanjay Roy was arrested by Kolkata police a day after the crime and charged with the rape and murder.

Mandal entered the agency's CGO Complex office at 3.20pm. He was accompanied by duty officer who was present at the police station on the intervening night of Aug 8 and Aug 9 and was malkhana in-charge at the police station.

Mandal was questioned for nearly six hours before being taken into custody for allegedly misleading officers. After arrest, he was taken to B R Singh Hospital for a medical examination.

CBI sources said the investigating officers found Mandal's statements inconsistent. This is perhaps the first time that a Kolkata police OC has been arrested by CBI. Mandal was investigated after questions were raised about the delay in registration of the general diary and formal registration of FIR in the case.

While the general diary was registered at 10.10am, after Tala PS received information over the telephone of the doctor's body being found, the FIR was finally registered at 11.45pm based on the complaint by the victim's father.

Supreme Court had earlier questioned Bengal govt on the 14-hour delay in filing FIR. CBI claimed on Saturday the FIR was registered only at the insistence of the victim's father after the body was cremated.

Questions were raised about postmortem being conducted after sunset. While a three-member panel of doctors had initially refused to conduct the autopsy in the evening, the OC authorised the postmortem between 6.10pm and 7.10pm due to "some urgent matter". Victim's parents had also accused the OC of pressuring them to cremate the body. As per CBI sources, Ghosh's statement during interrogation also gave the agency some leads and raised suspicion about the role of the Tala OC.

CBI will produce Mandal and Ghosh in Sealdah ACJM's court on Sunday.

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