Kolkata, Jan 18: Amid apprehensions and hope, a special court in Kolkata will be delivering the verdict within a few hours in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August last year.

On one hand, the parents of the victim are apprehending that their quest for justice for their daughter will be limited to conviction and sentencing of the “sole prime accused” in the case Sanjay Ray, an erstwhile civic volunteer attached to Kolkata Police, thus allowing the conspirators involved in “tampering” and “altering” of the evidence in the matter, to remain behind the curtains forever.

On the other hand, the hope of many representatives of civil society is that while pronouncing the sentence for the sole prime accused, at least the special court should make some observations on the “evidence tampering and altering” aspect, that might open up a new line of investigation on these lines.

Already the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which just filed one charge sheet in the matter identifying Sanjay Ray as the sole prime accused in the crime of rape and murder, is in the line of fire of the victim’s parents and a section of the civil society, who suspect the role of some “invisible hand” in pulling the strings of the CBI in the case.

On this issue, the CBI is portrayed as a villain because of its failure in filing a supplementary charge sheet against the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar, Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal, both accused of tampering and altering the evidence, within 90 days of their arrest, following which both were granted “default bail” by the same special court.

Now all eyes will be on the proceedings of the special court in the second half on Saturday, when the verdict will be pronounced leaving the field open for further debates on whether “justice is granted” or “justice is denied” for ‘Abhaya (the fearless)’ the woman doctor who has been named such by the public.

Kolkata, Jan 17: The crucial verdict on the rape and murder of a woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata will be delivered at a special court in the city on Saturday.

Civic volunteer Sanjay Roy is the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder crime.

Any observations of the judge of the special court, besides pronouncing the conviction of Roy, will throw any light on the aspect of much-talked-about aspect of tampering and altering the evidence during the initial phase of investigation carried by Kolkata Police before the case was handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Calcutta High Court.

The CBI during the entire phase of the investigation filed just one charge sheet in the case where it identified Roy as the “sole prime accused” in the rape and murder crime.

Roy was initially arrested by the Kolkata Police just a day after the body of the victim doctor was recovered from a seminar hall of R.G. Kar premises in the morning of August 2024.

Although the CBI arrested the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal on charges of tampering and altering the evidence, both were granted “default bail” later by the same special court since the CBI failed to file supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest.

The process of framing charges against Roy at the special court was completed on November 4, 2024, and, henceforth, the trial process started on November 11.

The entire trial process was conducted in camera and within the closed courtroom. During the trial process, the statements of a total of 50 witnesses were recorded, which included the parents of the victim, investigating officials of both CBI and Kolkata Police, forensic experts and some doctors and colleagues of the victim at R.G. Kar.

In the initial days after the recovery of the body and during the investigation by CBI, first, the entire West Bengal and subsequently the entire country witnessed a unity of the representatives from the medical fraternity, civil society and common people in hitting the streets demanding justice for the victim referred by protesters as ‘Abhaya (the fearless). Gradually, protests were reported from other parts of the globe by the associations of Non-Resident Indians settled there.

The theory and suspicions of tampering with the evidence gained grounds on midnight of August 14 last year, when a group of anti-socials vandalized the emergency department of R.G. Kar, at a time when lakhs of people assembled on the streets in different pockets of the state at midnight protesting and demanding justice for Abhaya. The event of vandalism diverted the entire media attention from the spontaneous protests.

Mumbai, Jan 17: A day after Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed at his Mumbai residence, the city cops arrested a suspect after hours of manhunt by multiple police teams.

He is understood to be the attacker who stabbed Saif Ali Khan in an attempted burglary at the actor’s residence, though his identity and role in burglary is yet to be confirmed by the police.

As visuals surfaced this morning, the arrested suspect was seen being taken to Bandra police station. Details of his identity is yet to be known but police sources claim that he is the one who broke into the residence of Saif and Kareena’s house in the wee hours of Thursday.

The cops believe that the attacker had changed his clothes to avoid being spotted and nabbed. The suspect was seen near the Bandra railway station after the incident.

The suspect was caught on apartment’s CCTV cameras and was seen fleeing the building through the stairs, apparently after being confronted by the actor. The intruder managed to escape and was seen on CCTV on the sixth floor while climbing down the stairs. The photo of lean and thin ‘stabber’ also went viral on social media.

The actor lives with his family including wife Kareen Kapoor, two sons – Taimur and Jeh. The incident happened while all were at home. The thief had broken into their four-floor residence at the 12th floor of ‘Satguru Sharan’ apartment.

Saif was reportedly stabbed six times by the burglar, when he confronted him for trespassing into the house. The actor was rushed to a Lilavati Hospital of the city, where he underwent an emergency surgery and was declared out of danger, according to doctors.

The shocking incident of barging into Saif-Kareena residence at midnight triggered wave of concerns and criticism from the tinsel towns celebrities, with many asking Mumbai police to crack down on the miscreants.