Kolkata: Senior lawyer Vrinda Grover will no longer be representing the R G Kar Medical College rape-murder victim's family, sources said on Thursday. The chamber of Grover said in a statement that the concerned trial court, before which the trial in the rape-murder case is being held, has been informed accordingly and that the counsels stand discharged from the matter.
It said that at this stage, on account of "certain intervening factors and circumstances", senior lawyer Vrinda Grover is "constrained to withdraw from the case proceedings in this matter" and will no longer be representing the victim's family.
The chamber of advocate Grover, including advocates Soutik Banerjee and Arjun Gooptu, had been requested by the victim's parents to provide legal representation before the Supreme Court, Calcutta High Court and the Sealdah sessions court and ACJM court, the sources said. Grover's chamber provided legal services and representation pro bono (free of cost) to the victim's family before all courts from September 2024, they said.
"The victim family has been represented every day, in the day-to-day trial in Sealdah sessions court, since November 4, 2024, and also before the ACJM court for a remand hearing on all dates of production since September 25, 2024," the statement said. It said that during this period, the evidence of 43 prosecution witnesses has been recorded, and "bail of other accused persons consistently and successfully opposed.
The body of the on-duty post-graduate trainee doctor was found in the seminar room of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Post mortem of the body revealed that she was raped and brutally murdered.
The high court handed over the investigation into the case from the Kolkata Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after hearing several PILs on the matter, including one by the parents of the victim, who sought an impartial probe on the death of their daughter.
