Kolkata doctor rape-murder: SC to hear suo motu plea on October 1

The Supreme Court on Monday (September 23, 2024) said it will hear on October 1 a case it has initiated on its own following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata amid the ongoing protests by doctors in West Bengal.

The Supreme Court on Monday (September 23, 2024) said it will hear on October 1 a case it has initiated on its own following the rape and murder of a resident doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata amid the ongoing protests by doctors in West Bengal.

At the outset of the day’s proceedings, a bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala was urged by a counsel appearing for one of the parties that the suo motu case, which is listed for hearing on September 27, be heard next week due to some urgent reasons.

"We will list it on hearing on next Tuesday that is October 1," the CJI said.

The top court, on September 17, said it was disturbed by the findings given in a status report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the rape and murder case but refused to divulge the details.

It had said any disclosure may jeopardise the ongoing investigation.

It had also sought a status report from the CBI on its probe into financial irregularities allegedly committed by the jailed former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh.

It also said the CBI was not "sleeping over" the investigation and it needs to be given time to "unearth the truth." "What the CBI has revealed in the report is really disturbing. What you are flagging is of utmost concern. We ourselves are concerned, that the CBI has flagged it for us. We are ourselves disturbed by what we have read," the top court had told a lawyer who claimed discrepancies in the seizure list and sketch of the crime scene.