New Delhi: The Supreme Court continued to grill the West Bengal government and the state police over the timeline of postmortem and registration of the crime as an unnatural death (UD) while hearing the Kolkata trainee doctor’s rape and murder case on Thursday.
“If it’s not a case of unnatural death, then why was it taken for postmortem. Postmortem starts at 18: 10 and ends at 19:10, what was the idea in registering in UD (unnatural death case) at 23:30 hours. UD case was registered at Thala police station at 23:30 hour and FIR was registered at 23:40 hour. It’s very surprising postmortem precedes the registration of UD. If this is the fact then there is something dangerous,” the bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud observed.
The CJI also observed that it was extremely disturbing that the GD (general diary) entry of unnatural death is recorded at 10:10am but the securing of the crime scene and the seizures were done at night.
Justice JB Pardiwala, who is also a part of the bench, remarked that the entire procedure followed by the Bengal government in the case, was something which he had not come across in his career.
CBI alleges crime scene was ‘altered’
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the CBI, alleged that the agency took up the investigation on the fifth day and the crime scene was ‘altered.’ The West Bengal government, however, denied the allegation, saying “everything was videographed.”
CBI submits probe status report to SC
Following the directive of the apex court, the CBI submitted the probe status report to the bench on Thursday. After reading the report, the CJI sought the medical report of the accused’s injury. To this, the court was informed that the medical report was part of the case diary.
Bench asks Kolkata police officer to appear on next hearing
The apex court also directed the Kolkata Police officer, who registered the first entry about the crime, to appear on the next date of the hearing.
What did the court say about ‘150gm of fluid in victim’s body’?
When the counsel interjected to claim that the postmortem referred to 150gm of semen, the CJI asked him to not use social media to make argument. “We have the PMR (postmortem report) before us, don’t read what is there on the social media,” the CJI remarked.
CJI requests doctors to return to work
Assuring the resident doctors of getting heard by the SC-constituted National Task Force for healthcare professionals, the CJI requested the protesting doctors to return to work. Concerns of protesting resident doctors getting marked as absent for duty were raised during the hearing. To this, the CJI said that the court would ensure that there was no adverse action taken against protesting resident doctors after they resume work.
