New Delhi: Against the backdrop of Mamata Banerjee’s government's fifth invitation for talks to the protesting junior doctors, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday a case regarding the rape and murder of a resident doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
The doctors have alleged that the police have tampered with the evidence. On Monday, the state government invited the protesting junior doctors for talks "for the fifth and the final time" in order to end the impasse. The earlier meetings were called off due to disagreements on several issues, such as live-streaming.
The hearing in the apex court on Tuesday will be significant, as resident doctors continue their strike despite the apex court's directive to them to resume work by 5 pm on September 10. The apex court had asked the doctors to resume work to avoid punitive action by the state government, which claimed doctors’ absence from work had led to the death of 23 patients till September 9.
On September 9, the Supreme Court had also expressed its concern regarding the absence of a key document, which was required for the postmortem of the trainee doctor raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, and asked the CBI to examine the matter. “So, there is no reference of this challan when the dead body is sent for examination. You need to explain, if this document is missing, then something is amiss," said the apex court, adding that the CBI should ask for it from the state government.
A counsel said this document was submitted during the hearing in Calcutta High Court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said in the absence of mention in the post-mortem report, the possibility of the document having been created subsequently cannot be ruled out.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, had vehemently opposed Mehta’s submission and said that nothing is being created subsequently. “We will file an affidavit”, said Sibal.
Mehta informed the bench that the central agency has decided to send forensic samples to AIIMS for further investigation.
"A status report has been filed by CBI, it appears that an investigation is in progress, we direct the CBI to file a fresh status report...We don't want to guide the CBI on its investigation,” said the bench, while scheduling the matter for further hearing next Tuesday.
In the meanwhile, in an email to the protesting junior doctors, state's Chief Secretary Manoj Pant asked them to reach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence at Kalighat at 5 p.m. on Monday for the talks. Banerjee visited the protest site on September 14 and extended an olive branch to the agitating doctors and invited them for talks which have not been fructified yet despite her trying to assure them that their demands will be met.
The Supreme Court had initiated a case on its own following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
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