The Supreme Court on Tuesday raised severe concerns over the actions of Kolkata Police in the investigation of a rape-murder case at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
The case, which is being heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, saw the court scrutinize the timing and order of legal procedures carried out by the police.
The bench particularly questioned how the postmortem of the deceased was conducted on August 9 between 6:10 pm and 7:10 pm, hours before the case was formally registered as an unnatural death. The information about the unnatural death was reportedly conveyed to the police station only at 11:30 pm on the same day. This delay in the case registration was deemed "extremely troubling" by the bench.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that the First Information Report (FIR) was filed at 11:45 pm, after the victim had already been cremated. The Supreme Court has now directed the Kolkata Police officer involved to appear at the next hearing and disclose the exact timing of the case entry.
These developments came to light while the bench reviewed status reports submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the West Bengal government. The court's vital observations signal the seriousness with which it is approaching the case, as it continues to investigate local authorities' handling of the incident.