West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accepted the demand of the protesting junior doctors for the removal of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal from the helm of the city’s law enforcement agency for his failure to ensure a fair probe in the rape and murder of a young doctor at a hospital here.
Kolkata: Agitating junior doctors on Monday night said they would continue their ‘cease work’ and demonstration till all the promises made to them by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over their demands materialise.
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The CBI on Monday interrogated RG Kar hospital's former principal Sandip Ghosh and police officer Abhijit Mondal together in connection with the rape and murder of the doctor, officials said.
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Supreme Court is set to hear the Kolkata rape and murder case on Tuesday at 10:30 am. This will be the fourth hearing in the top court on the matter it took up suo motu in the wake of the nationwide outrage.
On West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's decision to remove Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, DC North Abhishek Gupta and 2 health officials, BJP National Spokesperson CR Kesavan on Tuesday said that the officers have just been transferred and not suspended. "A mere transfer is nothing but a ploy. It is an eyewash by Mamata Banerjee and the West Bengal Govt to dodge responsibility," he said.
"The official minutes of the meeting yesterday has no mention of any suspension from Govt duty. It merely mentions transfers of senior Police and Health officials," Kesavan said.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on Tuesday morning started simultaneous raids at six locations in Kolkata, including the residence of a TMC MLA, in connection with their investigation into the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, an officer of the agency said.
Search operations were underway at the Sithi residence of TMC's Serampore MLA Sudipto Roy and the house of a medicine dealer, besides four other places, he said.
Source: PTI
CJI Chandrachud did not agree to the request and said that the top court will not stop streaming of live proceedings in Kolkata rape-murder case as it is in public interest.
The court also assured Kapil Sibal that it will step in if there are any threats to lawyers and others.
We have looked at CBI report, disclosing status will jeopardise further investigation, the CJI said while hearing the matter on Tuesday.
"We have seen status report and CBI has responded all of the issues we have raised, include whether the challan was given," the CJI added.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, representing the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Forum (WBJDF) told the court that there has been presence of the persons (at place of crime). "We are willing to submit the name of the persons to CBI in sealed cover, I'm not making public in court," she said.
Meanwhile, the court noted that CBI needs to be given ample time for investigation as they are "not sleeping over."
Counsel: Wikipedia was contacted and asked to removed it, it said we will not be censored!
SG: This is not censoring, its asking not to commit an offence
CJI: Ok we will deal with that we will pass an order
The CJI asked SG not to ask the police to hand over the footage. "Have you used the blocker device or not? make sure that the CBI seizes the entire DVR and footage, we hope that the CBI does it," he said.
Counsel: the place where camera was placed was not at the entrance room, there are also other cameras placed....(2) there is no dispute that there is no dead body challan
CJI: SG can you ensure that your counsel traces what happened before the HC (where the challan was shown)
While Sibal representing the West Bengal government said that 7-8 hours of footage was given, the CBI said that it only received 27 mins of the DVR footage.
The Supreme Court noted, "The governing principle is that identity of the victim in rape and murder shall not be disclosed. Wikipedia shall therefore comply with the previous order passed."
Senior Advocate Karuna Nandy for the junior doctors claimed the state government continues to give "misleading" statements on people being denied medical care.
After CJI sought to know what steps West Bengal have takenon ground apart from budgetary allocation, Senior Adv Kapil Sibal appearing for West Bengal listed confidence building steps taken by the state.
Work have begun for making resting rooms for male and female doctors , which will be completed in 7-14 days.
Additional toilets and CCTV cameras installation will be completed in 7-14 days
Association for ‘doctors for patients’ in West Bengal objected to the state government's new policy to avoid deploying women doctors at night shifts.
“You cannot tell women to not work at night. It is your duty to provide them protection whenever they work. Women pilots, defence personnel, etc, work at night”, CJI DY Chandrachud said.
After CJI sought to know what steps West Bengal have taken on ground apart from budgetary allocation, Senior Adv Kapil Sibal appearing for West Bengal listed confidence building steps taken by the state.
Work have begun for making resting rooms for male and female doctors , which will be completed in 7-14 days.
Additional toilets and CCTV cameras installation will be completed in 7-14 days
The bench also ordered enough number of toilets and CCTV cameras be installed within two weeks.
"Sanction has been granted for toilet, resting rooms, additional CCTV cameras, besides budgetary provisions, work has commenced, the direction is to complete in 7-14 working days. Apart from 717 CCTV additional CCTV cameras will be installed," the CJI stated.
The Supreme Court has concluded the hearing in RG Kar case for the day.
Kolkata: Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal held a meeting on Tuesday evening to decide on their ongoing ‘cease work’ and protests demanding justice for the woman medic, who was raped and murdered at RG Kar hospital last month.
The governing body meeting of the medics, which started around 6.30 pm, is still underway, one of the protesting doctors said.
"We are holding this meeting to decide on whether to continue with our 'cease work', as some of our demands have been fulfilled by the state government," he told PTI.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday night announced the removal of the Kolkata police commissioner, the director of health services and the director of medical education, giving in to the demands of the protesting junior doctors.
The announcement by the CM came after an extensive meeting with the agitating doctors to end the more than a month-long impasse over the rape-murder of the medic on August 9.
-PTI