Kolkata doctor murder: Police to ensure 'highest punishment' for accused
Kolkata: Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal asserted the force will make sure the accused in the sexual assault and murder of a woman postgraduate trainee doctor gets "the highest punishment” if he is found guilty.
"This is a heinous crime, and the arrested person is allegedly involved based on circumstantial evidence, including accounts of the other doctors present during night-duty hours," Goyal told a press conference here.
"An SIT has been formed and on the basis of evidence, the person was arrested. We will see to it that he gets the highest punishment. He will be produced in court today," he said. Goyal said the autopsy was videographed and the woman's family members were present during the process.
"There is strong complicity as far as the accused is concerned. He is a criminal of the highest order," he said.
The top police officer said the investigation into the case will be done in a transparent manner, and “if the family demands, the probe can be conducted by any other agency”.
A case has been started against the accused under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), he added.
Meanwhile West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted that her government will seek death penalty for the accused in the alleged sexual assault and murder of a woman postgraduate trainee doctor. Banerjee also said she has asked officials to ensure that the case be tried in a fast track court.
The chief minister also said the protests and processions by junior doctors demanding exemplary punishment for the accused were justified.
"I endorse the demands being made by the junior doctors," she told a Bengali news channel. Banerjee said the West Bengal government has no objection to an investigation into the case by any agency, including the CBI, if there is a demand for it.
Describing the incident as gruesome and despicable, she urged the junior doctors at various state-run hospitals to carry on giving healthcare services, while holding the protests.
The body of the woman doctor was found inside the seminar hall of a government-run hospital in north Kolkata on Friday. A preliminary autopsy report has indicated sexual abuse before she was killed.
PTI