RG Kar victim’s parents refuse to authenticate audio clips of calls

If found to be authentic, three audio clips of telephone calls made from the hospital to the parents of the murdered and allegedly sexually assaulted junior doctor at Kolkata's R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital on the morning of 9 August, a few hours after the crime was committed, would confirm Kolkata Police's claim that they did not inform the parents that their daughter had died by suicide. The parents, however, have refused to authenticate the audio clips as of now, maintaining they know nothing about them.

The calls were purportedly made by the same person, a lady, who did not provide her name. In the first clip, she can be heard telling the parents that their daughter had fallen ill, was being admitted to the hospital for treatment, and they should reach the hospital immediately.

Asked for details of the ailment, she replied that attending doctors would be able to explain. They should, however, hurry. Asked what the urgency was, the lady, who merely said she was calling from RG Kar Hospital, volunteered that the condition of their daughter was critical.

In the second clip, she introduces herself as the assistant superintendent. The parents, she insists, must reach the hospital as soon as possible. When the parents ask for a doctor to explain the condition of their daughter, the caller says she is not a doctor, that their daughter had been taken to the ‘Emergency’, and they should reach the hospital as early as possible.

In the third clip, she claims that it seemed their daughter had either died by suicide or had attempted to do so. She informs them that the police had reached the hospital and the parents must rush there too.

There was no official reaction until Friday afternoon from Kolkata Police, the state government, or the medical college. However, the clips doing the rounds on social media have given rise to several unanswered questions. It is not clear if they are authentic, to begin with. If they happen to be, who would have recorded them and why? Even more importantly, who could have leaked them and to what purpose?

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the investigation into the murder and alleged sexual assault on 14 August, has interrogated a large number of people, searched a number of premises, and is said to have seized documents related to financial irregularities. The agency has also carried out polygraph tests on several suspects and principal accused Sanjay Rai, who was arrested within 12 hours of the incident by Kolkata Police and remains the only person to have been arrested in the case so far.

The Central agency is likely to produce a status report before the Supreme Court before 5 September, the date of the next hearing of the case, which the SC took suo motu cognizance of.