RG Kar case: Statements of two crucial witnesses to be recorded today

Kolkata (The Uttam Hindu): The statements of two crucial witnesses in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital are slated to be recorded on Monday at a special court here where the hearing in the matter is taking place on a daily and fast-track basis. Sources aware of the development said that one of the two crucial witnesses whose statement is slated to be recorded is the judicial magistrate in whose presence the inquest of the victim's body was done.

The second crucial witness whose statement will also be recorded at the special court is the videographer who had done the video-recording of the inquest and post-mortem of the body. However, the entire hearing process will be held in camera, where none other than those related to the case will be allowed to be present within the courtroom during the hearing process. The trial process in the rape and murder case started on November 11 and since the very first day, the hearing has been in-camera in nature. Till now the witnesses of nine persons, including the parents of the victim have been recorded at the special court, said sources.

Three persons are in judicial custody in relation to the rape and murder case. The first is civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, who had been named as the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder crime in the first charge sheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the matter following a directive of the Calcutta High Court. The other two in judicial custody are Sandip Ghosh, the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar, and Abhijit Mondal, the former SHO of the Tala Police. The main charges against them include misleading the investigation and tampering with the evidence when the initial investigation was being carried out by Kolkata Police before the probe was handed over to the CBI.

The CBI might include their names in the supplementary charge sheet to be filed in due course. On the second day of the hearing, while Roy was being brought out of the special court, he told waiting media persons outside the court that former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal conspired to falsely implicate him in the case. However, since then he has been brought to and taken away from the court in a special vehicle with tinted glass windows disabling him from interacting with the media persons.