RG Kar rape-murder case: Absconding ex-chief of Panihati Municipality arrested

Kolkata: West Bengal Police on Thursday said the absconding former chief of Panihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas district, Somnath Dey, the third co-accused in the conspiracy of the hurried cremation of the R.G. Kar rape-murder victim’s body in August 2024, was arrested in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Dey is currently in custody of a team of West Bengal Police officers. He will be brought to Kolkata on transit remand later in the day and then will be presented before the Barrackpore district court in North 24 Parganas district.

The public prosecutor will seek his police custody in the case.

Earlier, two other co-accused in the hurried cremation conspiracy case, namely the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family at Panihati, were arrested by the state police.

Both are in judicial custody now. Dey went missing after the West Bengal Police started an investigation into the angle of hurried cremation conspiracy and identified Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey as the three principal conspirators.

To recall, while speaking at a programme on the occasion of the second death anniversary of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim on August 8, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced a fresh probe by the Barrackpore Police Commissariat in the hurried cremation case. It is suspected that the last rites at a crematorium at Panihati were allegedly carried out to eliminate the chance of a second post-mortem of the body.

Thereafter, a fresh FIR was registered at Khardah Police Station under the Barrackpore Police Commissariat naming Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey. The FIR was registered based on a fresh complaint filed by the victim’s father.

Initially, all three accused persons went absconding. Ghosh was the first to be arrested last month from neighbouring Odisha. Thereafter, Mukherjee was arrested from a house in Chinar Park, Kolkata.

However, Dey remained absconding before finally getting arrested in Bengaluru.

The body of the female doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was recovered from a seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024. Later, it was found that she was brutally raped and murdered the night before. Thereafter, allegations surfaced that the victim’s body was hurriedly rushed to the crematorium at Panihati and hastily cremated, breaching all cremation-related protocols. It is alleged that the entire cremation process was supervised by Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey.

IANS