Kolkata, Mar 28: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday informed Calcutta High Court that the woman junior doctor of the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata was not gang-raped.

The single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh was hearing the case concerning the rape and murder of a woman doctor in August last year.

Earlier, on the first day of the fresh hearing at his Bench on March 24, Justice Ghosh had directed the CBI to clarify whether the tragedy was a case of “rape or “gang rape”.

On Friday, the CBI in its clarification to the same Bench ruled out the possibility of “gang rape in the matter.”

Thereafter, the CBI also clarified that the current phase of investigation in the matter was in relation to the angle of evidence tampering and altering when the initial probe in the matter was being carried out by the Kolkata Police.

On Friday afternoon, the CBI also submitted a three-page status report to a special court in Kolkata on the progress of the investigation in the matter.

The status report was submitted at the same special court which recently sentenced the sole convict in the case, Sanjay Roy, to life imprisonment.

On Friday, the CBI also submitted the case diary in the matter to the Bench of Justice Ghosh as directed by the latter on the first day of the hearing on March 24.

While submitting its clarification that the tragedy was not a case of “gang rape”, the central agency also said that their claims on these lines following their findings in the matter had been substantiated in the report by a forensic team of 14 specialists which examined different documents collected by the investigating officials in the matter.

The CBI counsel also informed Justice Ghosh’s Bench on Monday that the current phase of the investigation was pertaining to the “post-offense conduct” in relation to tampering and altering of evidence that could be part of a “larger conspiracy” behind the crime.

The next date of hearing in the matter at Justice Ghosh’s Bench in the matter is scheduled after two weeks.

The Bench also directed that the case diary of the initial investigation into the matter should be submitted to the court on the next date of hearing.

To, recall, the body of the victim was recovered from the seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9 last year.

A Special Investigation Team of Kolkata Police started the initial probe in the matter and also arrested Sanjay Roy.

However, soon the charge of investigation was handed over to the CBI following an order of the Calcutta High Court and accordingly, Roy was shifted from the custody of the city police to that of the CBI.

Recently, a special court in Kolkata sentenced Roy to life imprisonment. However, the CBI has already challenged the special court order at Calcutta High Court and sought capital punishment for him.

--IANS

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