West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that the probe in the alleged rape and murder of the trainee doctor of Kolkata-based R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital will be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) if the Kolkata Police is unable to complete the investigation by next Sunday. A special investigation team (SIT) of Kolkata Police under the direct supervision of the joint commissioner (crime) of the city police Murli Dhar, is currently probing the case.

“If the police are unable to complete the investigation by next Sunday, then the responsibility of the investigation in the case will be handed over to the CBI,” the Chief Minister told media persons after meeting the family members of the victim. The Chief Minister’s statement came just a couple of hours after the Kolkata Police issued a public appeal earlier in the day through social media urging the public to have faith in the investigation being carried out by the SIT of the city police. She had earlier also made a statement that if the family members of the victim and the protesting junior doctor and medical students of R.G. Kar insist on a central agency probe, she will not have any objection to that. City police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal, too, reiterated the CM’s statement on the matter. While affirming that the probe will be handed over to CBI, if the ongoing police investigation in the matter is not completed by next Sunday, the Chief Minister also said on Monday she had taken this decision despite being aware that the success rate of CBI in investigation is not satisfactory.

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“I am aware of the success rate of CBI. They are yet to resolve the case of the Nobel Medal theft of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Still in this matter, the charge of the investigation will be handed over to the CBI for the sake of public satisfaction,” she said. The CM also said that she has instructed the city police to file the charge sheet within the next three to four days, move a fast-track court in the matter and if necessary, make an appeal for capital punishment for the guilty. “The person who committed such a crime does not deserve any mercy,” she added. She also expressed solidarity towards the protesting junior doctors and medical students.

“Their demands are justified and I express my full solidarity towards them,” the Chief Minister said. Amid massive protests over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor on the campus, the principal of Kolkata-based R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, Dr Sandip Ghosh, on Monday resigned, appealing to the protesting medical students and house staff to withdraw their demonstrations. Amid the growing anger and outrage over the rape and murder of a Kolkata doctor, doctors across many hospitals of the country have joined the protests and halted elective services, demanding that the perpetrators of heinous crimes be brought to book. The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) on Monday wrote to the Union Home Minister and announced the nationwide halting of elective services in hospitals to express solidarity with the doctors of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.