Minor's rape & murder: Calcutta HC orders victim's autopsy at a Central hospital, judicial magistrate's presence

Kolkata, Oct 6 The Calcutta High Court, at a specially convened hearing on Sunday on the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl at Jaynagar in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, directed that the autopsy of the body of the victim be conducted at a Central-run hospital in the state in presence of a judicial magistrate.

The single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who heard the matter on an emergency basis following a direction of the Calcutta High Court's Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam, directed that the judicial inquest in the matter be conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Kalyani in Nadia district in presence of a judicial magistrate.

In case AIIMS Kalyani does not have the requisite infrastructure for carrying out the autopsy, Justice Ghosh directed that it should be conducted at the state-run College of Medicine and JNM Hospital, which is also located in the same district. However, he said that even if the autopsy is conducted at the state college, it should be done by any forensic medicine expert from AIIMS Kalyani and no one from the JNM would be allowed to be present during the time of the autopsy.

Besides, directing video recording of the entire autopsy process, Justice Ghosh said that the parents of the victims should be allowed to be present outside the autopsy room, and if they desire, they will have to be provided a copy of the video recording of the autopsy.

Meanwhile, state BJP Secretary Priyanka Tibrewal on Sunday wrote a letter to NCPCR's National Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, seeking the commission's intervention in the matter.

"I earnestly beseech the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to act with utmost urgency in this matter. The protection and rights of our children must remain an unequivocal priority; your intervention, in this case, will be pivotal in affirming that such heinous acts will not be tolerated and that justice will be vigorously pursued," she said in the letter.

In her letter, Tibrewal has also emphasised that the engagement of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is imperative to guarantee a scrupulously impartial and exhaustive inquiry into this egregious crime.

"Such intervention is essential not only to uphold the sanctity of the legal process but also to restore public confidence in the administration of justice, thereby ensuring that the investigation is conducted free from any local biases or undue influence," the letter stated.

Source: IANS