R G Kar protests: Supreme Court orders SIT probe into custodial torture case, weekly reports before Calcutta HC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an SIT investigation into the alleged torture of a woman in police custody following her arrest over protests against the rape and murder of a doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

Observing not everything could be transferred to the CBI, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan modified the Calcutta High Court order ordering a CBI probe and said senior IPS officers of the state need to be entrusted with the investigation.

The top court said the SIT, which will comprise officers, whose names were submitted by the state, shall submit its report on the progress of the investigation on weekly basis to the high court.

The Calcutta High Court chief justice was directed to constitute a special bench before which the SIT would submit its report besides seeking further investigation.

On November 11, the top court stayed the October 8 order of the high court directing a CBI probe while asking the state government to submit a list of seven IPS officers, including five women, who would comprise a fresh SIT to probe the custodial torture case.

The order was passed on an appeal filed by the West Bengal government that stated the high court had erroneously ordered a CBI probe whereas the state police was capable of the investigation.

On November 6, a division bench of the high court upheld a single-judge order directing a CBI probe into the allegations levelled by the woman.

The division bench said the order of the single judge to conduct an independent investigation could not be faulted and did not call for any interference.

Initially, two women petitioners, moved the single-judge bench alleging physical torture while in police custody. The court noted the report of a jail doctor who found signs of hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within tissue) on the legs of one of them.

The complainants, Rebeka Khatun Molla and Rama Das, were arrested on September 7 and remained in the custody of Falta Police Station in the Diamond Harbour police district till their judicial remand ordered by the Diamond Harbour court the next day, the high court noted.

The division bench further noted while the report of the medical officer of Diamond Harbour sub-correctional home states hematoma on both of Das' legs, the examining doctor of Diamond Harbour Medical College and Hospital recorded no external injury.

Considering the subsequent medical reports of the petitioner, the high court bench said it was of the prima facie view that the trauma occurred on her on September 7 in police custody.

It observed the discrepancies were serious and would warrant an independent agency to conduct the investigation.