FOUL SMELLS THE AIR

FOUL SMELLS THE AIR

Delayed FIR, alleged early destruction of evidence, unusual late hour postmortem at R.G.Kar itself by expert of Sandip Ghosh's choice, police allegedly attempting to offer money to the victim's parents (as per verbal submission of the latter to that effect), early cremation of victim's dead body to prevent second postmortem, allowing a critical crowd of outsiders within the ambit of the crime scene prior to cremation, sudden renovation work conducted adjacent to the alleged crime scene, reinstatement of Sandip Ghosh as Principal of Calcutta Medical College within hours of his resignation as Principal of R.G.Kar and then reappointment within days as Special Administrative Officer at 'Svastha Bhavan', sending two important TMC representatives to coax striking Calcutta Medical College students into submission and acceptance of Sandip Ghosh as their new principal which the latter refused, sending the West Bengal Government's top official lawyer to defend Sandip Ghosh at the Calcutta High Court, lax investigation by Kolkata Police in the first few days post the crime including no interrogation of Sandip Ghosh before the investigation was handed over to the CBI by a Calcutta High Court order, massive vandalism at R.G.Kar in front of the Kolkata Police by an army of 7000 miscreants and the strange passivity of the police and its fleeing from the scene rather than checking the vandals and defending the R.G.Kar College, only 27 minute footage of CCTV made available for legal scrutiny at the Supreme Court, queer protest rallies by the ruling party led by the Chief Minister demanding justice for Tilottama and over-urgency to close case by hanging the perpetrator of the crime within 7 days, over-eagerness of high-ranking TMC members like Sagarika Ghosh to prove that the crime was committed by only a single person, threats periodically issued by prominent representatives of the ruling party to the junior doctors on strike and to critics of the Chief Minister, harassment of doctors Sarkar and Goswami by the Kolkata Police by undue summoning of them to Lalbazar for online posts in violation of police directives and issuing similar notices to doctors legion to the same effect, taking polygraph test of Sandip Ghosh at his residence instead of in CBI custody to prevent medical tampering of his physical self to evade lie-detection, the great haste in passing the 'Aparājitā Bill' in the Vidhān Sabhā to fast-track rape-judgement, blaming the junior doctors for the contested death of 23 patients allegedly for their receiving no treatment on account of the unavailability of the on-strike said doctors, refusal to live-telecast the proposed meeting between the Chief Minister and the on-strike junior doctors at Nabānna, undue attempts by the Government to politicise the doctors' movement, which has all along been strictly apolitical, by passing remarks to that end---all these and many more issues have raised serious doubts about the intent of the concerned parties and serious suspicions as to the extent of corruption and the range of involvement of prominent personalities in this dastardly crime that passes description.

Written by Sugata Bose