Supreme Court begins hearing Kolkata horror case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing a suo motu case related to the rape and murder of a postgraduate medic at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the matter.

On September 9, the top court had voiced concern over the absence of the "challan", a key document forwarding the body of the junior doctor who was raped and murdered at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata for postmortem, from the records presented before it and sought a report from the West Bengal government.

On August 22, the apex court had tore into the Kolkata Police over the delay in registering the unnatural death of the woman doctor, who was raped and killed at the hospital, calling it "extremely disturbing", and questioned the sequence of events and the timing of its procedural formalities.

The top court had earlier constituted a 10-member National Task Force (NTF) to formulate a protocol for ensuring the safety and security of doctors and other health care professionals.

Terming the incident as "horrific", the apex court had excoriated the state government over the delay in filing the FIR and allowing thousands of people to vandalise the state-run facility.

The rape-and-murder of the junior doctor in a seminar hall of the state-run hospital has sparked nationwide protests.

The medic's body with severe injury marks was found on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day.

On August 13, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the CBI, which started its investigation on August 14.