Chief Justice DY Chandrachud led bench showed its displeasure and strong dissatisfaction with the West Bengal government and the authorities at the RG Kar hospital over the delay in filing the FIR. He asked some poignant questions from senior advocate Kapil Sibal who was representing Bengal government.
CJI: Why was FIR registered three hours after the body was handed over for cremation?
CJI: What was the Principal doing and why the hospital authorities tried to pass it off as suicide
Justice Pardiwala: Who is the first informant who filed the FIR? What is the time of the FIR?
CJI: A mob enters the hospital and damages critical properties, what were the cops doing then?
Chief Justice Chandrachud raised serious concerns about the timeline of events surrounding the victim’s death. He questioned why the body was handed over for cremation at 8:30 pm, even though the FIR was filed three hours later. The autopsy, conducted between 1:45 pm and 4:00 pm, clearly indicated that the doctor had been murdered, yet the FIR was delayed. “What were the principal and the hospital board doing during this time?” he asked, highlighting the troubling delay. He also pointed out that it seems the crime was discovered in the morning, but the hospital’s principal initially tried to dismiss it as a suicide, preventing the parents from seeing the body and delaying the filing of the FIR.
That’s not correct,” Mr. Sibal responded. “The FIR was registered immediately, and the inquest clearly indicates that it’s a case of murder.”
The Chief Justice then asked why after the principal resigned, he was reassigned to the same position at another medical college.
