Former Panihati civic chief arrested in RG Kar victim cremation case

West Bengal Police on Thursday arrested former Panihati Municipality chairman Somnath Dey in Bengaluru in connection with the alleged hurried cremation of the doctor raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024.

Dey, who had been absconding, is the third principal accused named in the alleged conspiracy. He is in the custody of a West Bengal Police team and is expected to be brought to Kolkata on transit remand before being produced in a Barrackpore court.

The prosecution is expected to seek his police custody for further questioning.

The two other accused in the case — former Trinamool Congress MLA from Panihati Nirmal Ghosh and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family — were arrested earlier and are currently in judicial custody.

Dey disappeared after police began investigating allegations that the victim’s body had been cremated hastily to prevent the possibility of a second post-mortem examination. Investigators subsequently identified Dey, Ghosh and Mukherjee as the principal suspects in the alleged conspiracy.

A fresh investigation by the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate was announced on 8 August, during a programme marking the second anniversary of the doctor’s death.

Khardah Police later registered a new FIR against the three men on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim’s father.

All three initially went into hiding. Ghosh was arrested in Odisha last month, while Mukherjee was subsequently detained at a house in Kolkata’s Chinar Park. Dey remained untraced until his arrest in Bengaluru.

The doctor’s body was discovered in a seminar hall at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on the morning of 9 August 2024. Investigators found that she had been raped and murdered the previous night.

Allegations later emerged that her body was taken to a crematorium in Panihati and cremated in haste, in violation of prescribed procedures. Police allege that Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey supervised the cremation.

With IANS inputs