KOLKATA: A day after suspending three senior IPS officers, including former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, over their alleged role in the rape and murder of a woman doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday warned of investigations against former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee.
Addressing a BJP rally in Falta in South 24 Parganas district ahead of the May 21 bypoll, Suvendu alleged that the previous Trinamool Congress government had attempted to shield the main accused in the RG Kar case and claimed Abhishek amassed disproportionate assets during the party’s tenure in power.
“I want to see an end of the two issues,” Suvendu said at the rally.
Targeting Mamata Banerjee, he said: “Three IPS officers, who with instructions of the previous CM had supressed evidences in connection with the R G Kar case, have already been suspended. You will see the mischiefs of the previous government when phone call records and WhatsApp chats of Vineet Goyal, Indira Mukherjee and Abhishek Gupta will be brought in the public domain. Then you can understand how much the then government can degrade itself.”
Without naming Abhishek Banerjee, Suvendu said: “Hon’ble ‘Bhaipobabu’, I brought list of properties from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. You have 24 properties in the name of Leaps and Bounds in Kolkata. You have a palatial party office in Amtala (South 24 Parganas). Everything will be taken in to account.”
Notably, 'Leaps and Bounds' came under scrutiny during the teachers’ recruitment scam investigation in West Bengal, with allegations that money linked to the scam had been transferred to the company’s accounts.
Abhishek has earlier been questioned multiple times by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the case.
Sharpening his attack on Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan, whom he described as a close associate of Abhishek, Suvendu alleged that the National Human Rights Commission had identified Khan as one of 19 “notorious criminals” linked to the 2021 post-poll violence in Bengal.
Earlier, while addressing a rally in North 24 Parganas district ahead of the second phase of the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said files related to the RG Kar case would be reopened if the BJP came to power in the state.
The role of three IPS officers, including former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, came under scrutiny after the rape and murder of the woman doctor at the hospital on August 9, 2024, triggered widespread protests demanding justice.
Speaking to reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna on Friday, Suvendu said: “We are reopening the file of the R G Kar case. Departmental proceedings against three IPS officers will be started and by this time, they have been suspended.”
“Besides the suspensions of the three IPS officers, the role of the previous CM Mamata Banerjee in connection with the incident will also be brought under the investigations,” the chief minister said.
The 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was found dead in a seminar room in the chest medicine department on the fourth floor of the hospital’s casualty building.
A 33-year-old civic volunteer, Sanjay Roy, was arrested on suspicion of raping and murdering her.
The incident triggered nationwide protests, with members of the medical fraternity holding demonstrations, sit-ins and hunger strikes in Kolkata demanding justice for the victim.
Protesters, including junior doctors under the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum formed after the incident, had demanded Goyal’s resignation as Kolkata Police commissioner.
The victim’s mother, Ratna Debnath, later contested and won the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections from Panihati on a BJP ticket.
