Sourav Bhattacharya's account of the hours preceding the rape and murder of the PG doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital gives a glimpse of Kolkata's underbelly — and accused Sanjay Roy's behaviour till his detention.
Published Aug 25, 2024 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 25, 2024 | 11:00 AM
Candlelight vigil seeking justice for the murdered Kolkata doctor.
The 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor and two of her colleagues watched Neeraj Chopra’s javelin darting through the air at the Paris Olympics around 2 am on 9 August. About 45 minutes later, her colleagues retired for the day, leaving the woman alone in the Seminar Room.
Little did she or her colleague then know that Sanjay Roy — arrested for the rape and murder of the lady doctor — was having a fun night, not far from the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Along with friend and barrack-mate Sourav Bhattacharya, he was having a round of booze at Sonagachi in Burtollah, Kolkata’s largest redlight area, barely two km from the hospital.
“We consumed liquor,” Bhattacharya would later tell South First. “Sanjay wanted more fun but he was not lucky. He was thrown out of a room after he picked up a fight with a sex worker.”
Miffed over the unexpected turn of events, the duo rode their two-wheeler to Chetla, another redlight area in south Kolkata. Bhattacharya claimed he rode pillion that night.
“We had another round of liquor, and I went into a room in the brothel. Surprisingly, Sanjay stayed back. I returned an hour later, and he was still there. I rode pillion again to return to the barrack and sleep,” the man in his mid-30s said.
Roy, however, had other plans. He wanted to return to the hospital. Bhattacharya realised Roy’s intention while passing the Shyambazaar Five-Point Crossing and the two-wheeler approached a bridge over a canal near the healthcare unit, destined to grab national attention within a few hours.
“There is a shortcut along the canal’s banks to the barrack. Instead of taking that route, he rode towards the hospital. Sanjay stopped in front of the hospital’s main gate and I got off the vehicle,” Bhattacharya said.
“It was around 3 am on 9 August. When he told me that he would go to the hospital again. I wanted to know why. He said he wanted to visit a patient. I requested him to drop the idea and return to the barrack at Salt Lake. But he was adamant. I used profanities to stop him but it did not work,” the man recalled.
Around 9.30 am that day, one of the trainee doctors who had been with the lady doctor earlier, returned to the Seminar Room to find her lying motionless.
Bhattacharya and Roy, both civic volunteers, were at the hospital till 10.30 pm on 8 August, before they went for a night out.
Bhattacharya’s brother was an inpatient at the hospital. Around 1.30 am on 8 August, he met his brother in the ward along with Roy. “After meeting my brother around 1.30 am with Sanjay, we left. We visited my brother again around 10 pm the same day,” Bhattacharya said.
The men met no resistance to visiting the ward at odd hours. Roy frequented the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and was known for his close ties with the heads of the police welfare board, a body of lower-rank police officers that takes care of the needs of the policemen and their families. Roy used to take care of the medical treatment of policemen, and their families.
“After consulting the nurses at the reception, we left the hospital around 10.30 pm on 8 August,” he said. The night was still young for the duo. The men rode about two kilometres to Sonagachi, where a sex worker turned Roy away.
Back at the hospital gate, Bhattacharya stood in the night alone. “I saw him entering the hospital. I returned to the barrack and slept,” Bhattacharya said.
Roy was fast asleep in his room when Bhattacharya woke up. “I shook him, but he did not wake up. I then went to the hospital. I called him around noon, but he did not respond. I called him again at 12.50 pm. This time he responded. I asked him whether he had taken a shower and asked him to join me for lunch at the barrack. He joined me when I was about to finish my lunch,” Bhattacharya recalled.
The news of the trainee doctor’s murder had by then become public. While leaving, Bhattacharya told Roy about the incident. “I asked him to make some phone calls and know what exactly happened at RG Kar. He said would do that. I asked him again to accompany me to the hospital. But he avoided going to the hospital, saying he wanted to go to the washroom. I returned alone around 2.30 pm,” he said.
Later when Bhattacharya called Roy again, he relented. “He came with the motorcycle key. I expected him to go with me to the hospital. He said chol (let’s go). But he wanted to go drinking, and not to the hospital. On the day of the incident, whenever I requested him to go to the hospital with me, he avoided,” he added.
Around 11.30 pm that day, Bhattacharya came to know that the police had detained Roy. “My brother called from the hospital and said police showed him Sanjay’s CCTV footage. When I enquired, I learnt that the police had picked him up,” Bhattacharya said.
Roy’s familiarity with the police personnel and hospital staff helped investigators in identifying him. Earlier, they had found CCTV footage of Roy going in and returning from the third floor where the doctor was found dead.
The inquest and post-mortem report revealed 10 external and nine internal injuries on the body and the cause of death was “manual strangulation associated with smothering”.
The CCTV visuals showed Roy going to the third floor with a Bluetooth-enabled earphone thrown over his shoulder around 3.30 am. He was seen walking the corridor to the Seminar Room. The same camera captured his image walking towards the lift around 4 am, but this time, the earphone was missing. Investigators from the Kolkata police’s detective department found the earphone near the doctor’s body.
After detectives picked him up, Roy kept denying any knowledge about the incident and tried to mislead investigators saying he went to visit patients. But when the police switched on the Bluetooth option of his handset, it was found that the phone was paired with the earphone. The sleuths then realised Roy was the man they had been looking for.
On Saturday, 24 August, Bhattacharya turned up before the CBI officers probing the gruesome crime. The federal agency will subject him to a polygraph test.
(Pranab Mondal is a Kolkata-based journalist with 23 years of experience in crime reporting. Edited by Majnu Babu).
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