Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS): The absconding former chief of Panihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas district, Somnath Dey, the third co-accused in the conspiracy of the hurried cremation of the R.G. Kar rape-murder victim’s body in August 2024, who was arrested in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on Thursday faced the wrath of the local people, while he was brought to the court from the local police station.
Dey, the former Bengal municipality chairman, was arrested in Bengaluru on Thursday morning, following which the cops brought him back to Kolkata on transit remand on Friday morning.
From the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, Dey was brought to the local Khardah Police station. However, on receiving the news, the agitated local people assembled in front of the police station.
As the police brought him out of the police station, the local people started pelting eggs and stones towards Somnath. To protect his head, the escorting police personnel quickly handed him over a helmet
However, it is not clear as yet whether Somnath was injured in the egg and stone attack. However, a couple of police personnel received minor injuries to protect Somnath.
Later, Somnath was produced before the Barrackpore Court on Friday.
The police seek to take Somnath, accused of involvement in the conspiracy of the hurried cremation of the victim’s body, into custody for interrogation. An application to this effect has been submitted to the court.
Earlier, two other co-accused in the hurried cremation conspiracy case, namely the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family at Panihati, were arrested by the state police.
Both are in judicial custody. Dey went missing after the West Bengal Police started an investigation into the angle of hurried cremation conspiracy and identified Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey as the three principal conspirators.
To recall, while speaking at a programme on the occasion of the second death anniversary of the R.G. Kar rape and murder victim on August 8, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced a fresh probe by the Barrackpore Police Commissariat in the hurried cremation case.The last rites at a crematorium at Panihati was allegedly carried out to eliminate the chance of a second post-mortem of the body.
Thereafter, a fresh FIR was registered at Khardah Police Station under the Barrackpore Police Commissariat naming Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey. The FIR was registered based on a fresh complaint filed by the victim’s father.
Initially, all three accused persons went absconding. Ghosh was the first to be arrested last month, from neighbouring Odisha. Thereafter, Mukherjee was arrested from a house in Chinar Park, Kolkata.
However, Dey remained absconding before finally getting arrested in Bengaluru.
The body of the woman doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was recovered from a seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024. Later, it was found that she was brutally raped and murdered, the night before. Thereafter, allegations surfaced that the victim’s body was hurriedly rushed to the crematorium at Panihati and hastily cremated, breaching all cremation-related protocols. It is alleged that the entire cremation process was supervised by Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey.
–IANS
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