Kolkata, Dec 19: Not satisfied with the current course of investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August this year, the parents of the victim on Thursday approached the Calcutta High Court seeking a court direction for initiating a fresh probe into the matter.

The victim’s parents have claimed that they do not have any faith in the course of the current investigation by the central agency in the matter and hence they want a fresh investigation from the beginning in the matter.

The parents have moved the single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh with their petition in the matter.

Justice Ghosh has admitted the petition and the matter might come up for hearing next week.

According to the parents, since the trial process in the matter has already started and the statements of the witnesses are being recorded, unless the Calcutta High Court intervenes in the matter right now, there might be possibilities of the probe going in the wrong direction.

Since the time a special court in Kolkata last week granted “default bail” to two individuals accused of tampering with the evidence since the CBI was unable to file a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the day of their arrest, the victim’s parents as well as the representatives of the state’s medical fraternity had been accusing the CBI of gross incompetence in the matter.

Those two accused persons were the former principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal. Ghosh is still behind bars because of the pending parallel probe by the CBI against him in the case of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar, while Mondal is already out on bail.

The CBI so far has filed only one charge sheet in the case were civic volunteer Sanjay Roy had been identified as the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder.

Recently, the victim’s parents have also changed their counsel representing them at the Supreme Court of India.

West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, an umbrella of the body of the junior doctors in the state spearheading the movement on this issue, has already threatened to resume their protests which they withdrew earlier keeping the larger public interest in mind.

New Delhi, Dec 19: A heated confrontation unfolded in Parliament premises on Thursday during a protest by Opposition MPs alleging disrespect towards Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The incident escalated when BJP MP Pratap Sarangi accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of pushing an MP, causing a chain reaction that led Sarangi to fall and sustain a head injury.

Sarangi claimed, “Rahul Gandhi pushed an MP, and he collided with me. I fell and hit my head, which is bleeding. The push was initiated by Rahul Gandhi.”

Denying claims of deliberately pushing the BJP leader, Rahul Gandhi told reporters, “It might be recorded in the cameras. BJP MPs were stopping us from entering Parliament. They blocked and threatened us. This is our right to protest.”

The protest was held against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent remarks in the Rajya Sabha, which the Opposition claimed insulted Dr Ambedkar. The Opposition demanded HM Shah’s removal from the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, BJP MPs staged a counter-protest, accusing Congress of disrespecting the Constitution and Dr Ambedkar. Led by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, they raised slogans such as “Congress party maafi maango, Ambedkar ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan (Congress must apologise, India will not tolerate the insult to Ambedkar).”

Thakur further criticised the Congress, stating, “The Nehru-Gandhi family has repeatedly disrespected Dr. Ambedkar. Despite being the architect of the Constitution, they worked to defeat him in elections and delayed honouring him with the Bharat Ratna, which was finally awarded by a non-Congress government.”

Nagpur, Dec 18: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday took a dig at Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray over his meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying it was like “meet this one, meet that one and go home next day.”

He thereby downplayed the meeting between Thackeray and Fadnavis.

“Anyone can meet the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister is the head of the state. The opposition party also meets him. The leaders of other parties of the opposition party also meet him. I see a radical change in those who criticised him severely, talked about ending him, and talked about putting him in jail. It is not wrong to meet Devendra Fadnavis,” said Shinde.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena legislator and former minister Deepak Kesarkar said “If Uddhav Thackeray had held such a meeting earlier (with Devendra Fadnavis), Shiv Sena would not have been divided into two.”

“Earlier, Uddhav Thackeray had not even responded to Devendra Fadnavis’ telephonic calls. Uddhav Thackeray abandoned Balasaheb Thackeray’s idea of Hindutva for the post of Chief Minister. Eknath Shinde had no other demand. Eknath Shinde’s only demand was that we should go with the idea of Hindutva. We should not go with the Congress. But if Uddhav Thackeray had met Devendra Fadnavis then, all this would not have happened. Devendra Fadnavis called Uddhav Thackeray many times in 2019. But now it is too late. Now the MahaYuti government has come back to power again,” said Kesarkar.

Meanwhile, Shinde slammed the opposition for their campaign against EVMs, saying that “When the poll results go against them, allegations are made against EVMs.”

“When the results are in favour of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, then EVMs are good. For them, the Election Commission is good. The Supreme Court and the High Court are also good. When the results are against them, then they start blaming EVMs. The opposition has been doing this for the last few days. In 2004 and 2009, voting was done on EVMs and the Congress won. When you win, you praise that system,” he added.

“Even the Supreme Court said that when you win, you don’t come to us and when you lose, you come to us. This is a double standard. After winning the Lok Sabha elections, you (the opposition) didn’t talk about EVMs. Omar Abdullah has also slammed the Congress,” said Eknath Shinde.

He said that Congress should not insult the mandate otherwise the people will make them sit at home. Shinde also ridiculed Uddhav Thackeray for his demand that the appointment of Election Commissioner be made through election.