Four colleagues of the 31-year-old doctor, who was raped and murdered in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, will be put through the lie-detector test because their statements are contradicting each other, sources from CBI have said. These include two first-year postgraduate trainees, a house surgeon and an intern.

Sources in the central agency have said that it doesn’t appear that the four doctors were involved in crime, but it wants to check if they played a role in tampering with evidence or were part of a conspiracy. The investigators have also pieced together the sequence of events the night before the doctor was sexually assaulted and killed. 

According to Kolkata Police’s timeline of events, one of these doctors saw the victim’s body in the seminar hall around 9.30 am the next day and alerted the authorities. All these four doctors had been questioned by the city police before CBI took over the probe, the timeline reveals.

What Has CBI Found?

The CBI has found fingerprints of two of these four doctors in the third-floor seminar room where the body was found. A CCTV camera had captured the house surgeon going from first floor to the third floor that night. The house surgeon has said that he went to the third floor at 2.45 am that night. The intern was on the third floor and had spoken to the victim that night, the CBI has found.

What Happened That Night

According to the sources, the victim and two first-year postgraduate trainees had dinner around midnight. Then they went to the seminar room and watched Neeraj Chopra’s javelin event at the Olympics. Around 2 am, the two colleagues went to the sleep room where doctors on duty rested. The victim stayed back in the seminar room. The intern has said that he was in the interns’ room. All these three rooms — the seminar hall, the sleep and the interns’ room are located close to each other on the third floor.

The Morning After

Around 9.30 am, one of the postgraduate trainee doctors, with whom the victim had dinner the night before, went to look for her before the ward rounds began. He found “her body in motionless state from a distance”, the Kolkata Police timeline says. He then informed his colleagues and senior doctors who alerted hospital authorities.

The Lie-Detector Test

The CBI has got permission for conducting the lie-detector test on the four doctors and Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, who has drawn fire for his handling of the situation. A special court gave the go-ahead for this yesterday. Lie detector test can only be conducted after a permission from the court and the consent of the suspect.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage at the Martyrologist exposition on children in Kyiv along with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and said “Conflict is particularly devastating for young children”. The Prime Minister arrived in Kyiv earlier today after a nearly seven-hour trip from Poland to hold talks with the Ukraine President. Russia and Ukraine have been involved in a long-drawn conflict for the last 2.5 years.

Martyrologist exposition has been built in memory of children who lost their lives in the ongoing conflict which has witnessed intense battles in several cities of Ukraine. 

“My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief,” the Prime Minister said in a post on X, where he paid homage to the children who have died in the conflict.

President @ZelenskyyUa and I paid homage at the Martyrologist Exposition in Kyiv.

Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief. pic.twitter.com/VQH1tun5ok

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2024

The two leaders are scheduled to hold both one-on-one and delegation-level talks with a focus on ways to find a negotiated settlement to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ukraine President paid their respects by keeping a toy in memory of the children who died. President Zelensky shared a video on X where he wrote “Children in every country deserve to live in safety. We must take this possible.”

Today in Kyiv, Prime Minister @NarendraModi and I honored the memory of the children whose lives were taken by Russian aggression.

Children in every country deserve to live in safety. We must make this possible. pic.twitter.com/gKdjqcL5iz

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 23, 2024

India has advocated dialogue and diplomacy since the beginning of the conflict which began on February 24, 2022. On several occasions, the Prime Minister has said that this is “not the era of war”. In his joint statement with the Polish Prime Minister, he underscored the relevance of dialogue and diplomacy to resolve disputes between nations.

PM Modi last met Mr Zelensky in June on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy’s Apulia. In the meeting, he conveyed to the Ukrainian President that India would continue to do everything within its means to support a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict and that the way to peace is through “dialogue and diplomacy”.

He also told Mr Zelensky that India believes in a “human-centric” approach to finding a solution to the conflict in Ukraine. In that meeting, the Ukrainian president invited the prime minister to Kyiv. His Ukraine visit comes nearly six weeks after his high-profile trip to Russia during which he held extensive talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin largely with a focus on ending the conflict.