Who killed PGT doctor in RG Kar hospital in Kolkata: drug 'mafia' suspected

KOLKATA, Aug 18: As the protests over the brutal murder of a lady doctor (PGT) of the RG Kar hospital in its seminar room where she was resting during a 36-hour shift duty in the wee hours of Friday, August 9, escalated, doctors across the country went on a day's strike on Saturday demanding better safety at work.

The CBI had taken over the case last week. A tout who had been a police welfare volunteer posted at the hospital had earlier been taken into custody by the Kolkata police soon after the murder which led to widespread protests over laxity of security.

The signs at the scene, the extent of injuries all over the body, the site of the crime being the seminar room of a welknown medical college, the time of ocurrence - all these definitely point to a calculated, conspired cold-blooded murder involving multiple people, and not just an assault as carried by media. Because a seminar room is frequented by medicos and other staff all the time and in the night used as a rest room as the hospital has no separate facility for the docs.

Her diary found beside her body should provide the leads.

A colleague told TOI that the suspect, Sanjay Roy, could be a part of a plot hatched by "a big fish". "We suspect it was not a simple case of rape and murder. She was targeted. How did the civic volunteer know she was in the seminar hall alone at that time?" the colleague was quoted.

"There are murmurs of a possible drug (medicines) siphoning racket in her department that she was trying to expose," the colleague said.

The CBI on a second day of interrogation on Saturday asked the then Principal of the college Dr Ghosh questions like his whereabouts on the night of the crime and his first reaction on hearing about the murder to which he did not provide a direct answer. The interrogation continued on Sunday.

When the CBI had begun the investigation last week, the victim's father told them her colleagues may be involved. The parents told the police that she might have been aware of some murky activities going on in the department and that could have been the motive.

The father said it was strange to know no one called her during the last several hours of her duty. “My daughter left for duty around 8.10 am that day. She was working in the OPD and last spoke to her mother around 11.15 pm. When my wife tried calling her in the morning, the phone rang but went unanswered."

“What is concerning that despite being a doctor on call, no one needed her from 3 am to 10 am," he said.

The CBI has summoned a few PGTs and other staff who were on duty that night of the crime.

The post-mortem report revealed that she was tortured before being strangled to death.

The RG Kar medical college and hospital has a dubious background with several violent incidents happening in the past. The principal also had been accused of misappropriation of funds and other irregularities in the past.