RG KAR CREMATION PROBE MOVES TO CBI AS HIGH COURT BLOCKS PARALLEL INVESTIGATION

October 2, 2026

The Calcutta High Court has transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation the probe into allegations surrounding the hurried cremation of the junior doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024. The court questioned why the West Bengal Police had opened a separate investigation while a court-monitored CBI probe was already examining the sequence of events surrounding the doctor’s death and cremation.

A division bench of Justices Shampa Sarkar and Tirthankar Ghosh directed the Khardah police station to immediately hand over all records connected with the case to the CBI’s special investigation team. The court also ordered the state police investigating officer to take no further steps in the matter.

The fresh FIR had been registered following a complaint by the victim’s father, who alleged that his daughter’s body had been cremated in undue haste at a Panihati crematorium. Three people, including former Panihati MLA Nirmal Ghosh, were arrested in connection with the case.

The High Court had earlier questioned the police over the decision to initiate a separate investigation while the CBI was already conducting a wider reinvestigation under judicial supervision. During Thursday’s hearing, the court said that both agencies could not simultaneously investigate the same issue.

The CBI’s existing special investigation team was constituted to examine the chain of events beginning on the evening of August 8, 2024, when the trainee doctor was last known to be with her colleagues, through the discovery of her body and its subsequent cremation. Allegations concerning possible evidence tampering and irregularities surrounding the cremation form part of the broader inquiry.

The court has also left it to the CBI to determine whether those arrested in the Khardah case need to remain in custody. The transfer brings the cremation allegations under the same investigative framework as the wider RG Kar probe, with further findings now expected from the CBI team.