Kolkata crime scene secured after 12 hours

With the CBI and Kolkata Police submitting before it the status report in the rape-murder, the Supreme Court on Thursday took an incisive look at the discrepancies and anomalies in securing the crime scene registration of the FIR and the initial investigation undertaken by the West Bengal police.

- Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

The judges at various points raised questions around the lapses in the recording of the crime and the initial investigation.

They asked why there was a long time lag between the discovery of the body and the registration of the First Information Report. It also raised queries on why the crime scene had not been secured even after 12 hours. The court also questioned the death being referred to as "unnatural" even after the post-mortem, which had established it to be a case of homicide. The Bench noted that all these aspects indicated that the investigation was distorted.

On the registration of the case, the Solicitor General appearing for CBI said, "We entered the investigation on the fifth day" and by then "everything was altered". He added that "the most shocking fact is that an FIR was registered at 11:45 pm after the cremation."

He said "the senior doctors and victim's colleagues had also asked for a video recording" as "they felt there was a cover-up".