In a scathing rebuke, the Calcutta High Court on Friday condemned the state machinery for its abject failure to address the recent vandalism at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in connection with the rape and murder case. The court described the incident as a glaring example of administrative negligence, highlighting the inadequacies in safeguarding public institutions.

The court directed the police and the hospital authority to file affidavits on the incident.

A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said it was hard to believe that the police intelligence did not have information about the gathering of 7,000 people at the health facility when the state's lawyer told the court that a mob of such number had assembled at the hospital in the early hours of Thursday.

The court directed the police and the administrator of the hospital to file two separate affidavits narrating the true state of affairs and all connected matters on the next hearing date on August 21.

The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, said the police should place on record the entire sequence of events that led to the vandalism in the hospital.

The investigating team of CBI was also directed by the court to file an interim report about the progress of its investigation into the alleged rape and murder of the woman doctor in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9, which led to a ceasework by junior doctors in government hospitals in the state. PTI