• By Mayukh Debnath
  • Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:59 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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RG Kar Case: The Kolkata Police has refuted claims that the crime scene at the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was tampered with in the immedidate aftermath of the alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor earlier this month. The claims gained traction especially after a photo showing a number of people inside the cordoned off area went viral.

The CBI, too, had told the Supreme Court that the crime scene was altered before it took over the probe in the case. However, on Friday, the Kolkata Police said it was able to identify all the individuals captured in the viral photo, adding that each and everyone one of them was associated with the investigation.

The police also denied claims made in some viral audio clips that suggested an attempt to pass the death off as a suicide. The victim's father also distanced himself from the purported audio clips wherein a hospital staffer was heard telling him that his daughter had died by suicide.

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- "We have seen that there is one particular news channel which has shown a video and some pictures of the seminar hall which is the place of occurrence of this case. There it has been seen that inside the cordoned off area, many people are standing and talking, and it is not clear who are these people. It has been alleged that there are probably some people who were not supposed to be there and there has been some tampering of evidence. We have taken a still from that video," Kolkata DCP (Central) Indira Mukherjee said while addressing the allegations of an attempted cover-up.

She added, " We have been able to identify each and everyone who was there in this picture... Right behind the cordon is the dead body... We have a videographer from the detective department, Commissioner of Police, Additional CP-1, Lady Police and forensic officials here. All are known to us and identified. There is also another picture and a new set of people. We have the witness doctor, FSL, fingerprint expert, the ACP of the detective department, the videographer, additional CP -1 and the forensic officials."

The official also asserted that the viral photo was taken after the inquest process was over. "At no point in time could anybody enter this area who was not authorized. Nobody entered who was not associated with the investigation process," the DCP stated.

- Dismissing allegations that the local authorities initially tried to misrepresent the death, she stated, "We heard some audio clips that were played by many channels...No such comments have been made by Kolkata Police. We never said that it was a suicide."

- Speaking on the viral audio clips of a purported telephonic conversation between a hospital staffer and the victim's parents, her father said, "We don't know from where, how it (the phone conversation between the family and the assistant superintendent of the hospital) went viral. We will not take responsibility for it."

- Asked whether the voice in the audio is his, the victim's father said, "You say so, but I do not see it. This issue will not affect the investigation."

(With inputs from ANI)