With the Calcutta High Court on Monday directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a comprehensive report on the rape and murder of the junior doctor of the R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, clarifying if it was a case of “rape” or “gang-rape”, the victim’s father expressed immense gratification over this particular observation of the court.

“It seems that hope is still alive for justice. We failed to make the CBI officials realise that the tragedy with our daughter was nothing but an ‘institutional murder’. The main motive was more about ‘murder” rather than ‘rape’. Our daughter protested against the use of expired medicines at the hospital affecting the patients’ health. So she was murdered. However, despite our repeated requests the CBI officials did not investigate on these lines. But I hope that after the high court’s observation today now, the CBI will not be active,” the victim’s father said after the hearing in the matter.

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“The judge has asked the CBI to determine how many people were involved and take further action. They have been directed to present the case diary in court on Friday. We trust the judiciary and believe that justice will prevail,” the father said.

The parents had moved the court raising concerns raised over the slow pace of the investigation and alleged attempts to shield those responsible.

Meanwhile, as the state government counsel and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee submitted that the state government is not opposed to further investigation into the matter, but questioned whether this could be done after the trial process has been completed at a special court, the father also criticised the state government’s inconsistent stand.

“Sometimes they say there is no objection, other times they raise objections. We don’t understand their position. What investigation did they conduct in the first five days? Do they even have the right to question the probe?” he said.

“On one hand, the state government is claiming that it did not have any objection to further investigation. On the other hand, it is raising questions on the legal aspects of whether further investigation could be carried out or not. The state government is not making it clear what it actually wants. This particular approach on the part of the state government had been evident since the body of our daughter was recovered from within the hospital premises in the morning of August 9 last year,” the victim’s father said.

The victim’s mother also expressed dissatisfaction with the probe, alleging that her daughter was tortured at the hospital for refusing to accept fake medicines, injections, and saline.

“The CBI has not been able to conduct a proper probe yet. From the beginning, we maintained that Sanjay Roy was not the only accused of my daughter’s murder. Her colleagues, (then Principal) Sandeep Ghosh, and others are involved in this institutional murder,” she claimed.

She further alleged that the state’s Mamata Banerjee government had been obstructing the investigation since August 9, despite her daughter being a government employee who died while on duty.

“The Health Minister and the Chief Minister were responsible for identifying those involved. But from day one, there have been efforts to cover up the matter. However, we will not give up. There may be delays, but we will get justice,” she asserted.

Besides directing the CBI to clarify whether this was a case of “rape” or “gang rape”, Justice Ghosh also directed the agency to submit the related case diary to his bench.