Former Trinamool Congress MLA Nirmal Ghosh is in for trouble as the West Bengal Police on Monday launched a fresh investigation into the allegations on the hurried cremation of the junior doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in August 2024.
Gosh is among the three people named in the First Information Report (FIR), apart from Panihati municipal councillor Somnath Dey and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family. The case was registered based on the junior doctor’s father’s complaint that the cremation was carried out in undue haste under the supervision of the three individuals with the intention of allegedly preventing any possibility of a second autopsy.
The move by the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate in the North 24 Parganas district comes two days after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, during a programme to mark the second death anniversary of the junior doctor, asked the police to file a new First Information Report (FIR) in the case.
The victim’s body was found in a seminar room at the state-run hospital in Kolkata on August 9, 2024, while investigations later confirmed that she had been raped and murdered the previous night, August 8.
CM Adhikari said that there are suspicions regarding the circumstances of the cremation, including the waiver of charges and the absence of family members’ signatures.
The role of Nirmal Ghosh, Somnath Dey and Sanjeev Mukherjee in the cremation ground needs to be investigated. I have ordered the registration of a new case separately, apart from the count-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). I have asked the Barrackpore Police Commissioner to take necessary steps in this regard. There is a mystery why no charge was taken for the cremation of the victim’s body. Why was the victim’s body cremated without the signature of any family member? All these will be probed again,” the chief minister had said at the programme.
According to the police, the 31-year-old junior doctor was hurriedly cremated at a crematorium in Panihati, overtaking two other bodies in line, and the signatures on the consent forms for cremation were not of the parents or family members but of neighbours.
The police said they have spoken to the employee at the crematorium and collected information.
“The fee for cremating the victim’s body was waived. The local councillor has the powers to do that. Also, two more bodies were awaiting cremation when the victim’s body was brought. But the doctor’s body was cremated before them,” Bholanath Patra, a worker at the crematorium, told reporters.
A senior police officer at the Khardah Police Station said the three have been booked for wrongful restraint, disappearance of evidence or giving false information, trespassing into funeral sites, and showing disrespect to human corpses or disrupting funeral services, also trespassing on one’s house.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s new team has seized the mobile phone of a staff nurse at the RG Kar hospital, sources said on Monday.
According to CBI sources, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is now investigating the circumstances surrounding a call made to the victim’s family after the incident. The phone has been sent for forensic examination, and the investigators are analysing call records, messages, deleted data and other digital records to establish whom the woman nurse contacted, when the calls were made and whether she spoke to anyone before or after contacting the family.
The CBI noted that the call to the victim’s mother on the day of the incident was made from the nurse’s phone. But investigators are yet to confirm whether the call was made on the nurse’s own initiative or at the direction of an official and whether the information conveyed to the family was part of a larger sequence of communications involving other officials.
Tanusree Bose is a dedicated journalist reporting for The Indian Express from Kolkata. Her work focuses sharply on the complex administrative, political, and judicial developments across West Bengal, establishing her as an authoritative voice in regional news coverage. Experience Current Role: Reports for the prestigious national daily, The Indian Express, providing her content with a high level of Trustworthiness. Geographical Expertise: Provides focused, in-depth coverage of West Bengal, demonstrating an intimate knowledge of the state's news and political nuances. Core Authority: Her reporting portfolio highlights deep Expertise in crucial, often sensitive, beats, including: State Politics and Governance: Covering the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), opposition strategies (BJP), and internal political controversies. Judicial and Administrative Affairs: Closely monitoring key developments in the Calcutta High Court, particularly major rulings related to employment, education, and social issues. Education Sector: Extensive reporting on significant controversies, such as teacher recruitment irregularities and administrative actions by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE). Social & Electoral Issues: Covering public events, community tensions (e.g., religious/political gatherings), and election-related processes like the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll. Tanusree Bose's consistent output and focus on high-stakes regional issues for a trusted media outlet underscore her status as a reliable and authoritative source for news from West Bengal. ... Read More
