Top Court Orders Special Team Probe Into RG Kar Protesters' Alleged Torture

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged torture of two women, who were arrested in September during protests against the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The top court passed the order dismissing Calcutta High Court's order directing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said that not everything could be transferred to the CBI.

The top court also said that senior IPS officers of the state need to be entrusted with the investigation.

The top court said that the SIT, which will comprise senior officers - whose names were submitted by the West Bengal government - would submit a report on the progress of the investigation on a weekly basis to the Calcutta High Court.

"We request the Chief Justice of the High Court to constitute a bench before which the SIT will submit its report...The SIT should investigate without being influenced by the previous comments of the High Court. The victim can immediately contact the SIT," the Bench said.

The case concerns two women, Rebeka Khatun Molla and Rama Das, who were arrested during the protests outside RG Kar Hospital earlier this year and released a day later.

Shortly after their release, the women moved a plea before the High Court alleging they were "physically tortured" while in police custody. In court, a jail doctor noted that there were signs of hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within tissue) in one of the legs of one of the women, however, an examining doctor of Diamond Harbour Medical College and Hospital said that they witnessed no external injury.

The women also claimed that they were "unnecessarily" arrested on the charges that they "instigated" another protestor to make comments against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee's daughter.

On November 6, a division bench of the high court upheld a single-judge order directing a CBI probe into the allegations levelled by the women. However, on November 11, the top court had stayed the order.