The absence of the CBI’s investigating officer in the rape and murder of the trainee doctor in Kolkata and a 40-minute delay in the arrival of the agency’s lawyer prompted an angry court in the city to wonder if it should grant bail to the main accused. The court also pulled up the agency and said this reflected a “lethargic attitude” on its part.

The developments in court also prompted an attack on the CBI and the BJP from the Trinamool Congress, which has been under fire over its handling of the horrific crime, with the party alleging that attempts are being made to “sabotage justice”. The investigation had been transferred to the agency from the Kolkata Police on the directions of the Calcutta High Court.

Hearing the bail petition of Sanjay Roy – a civic volunteer who has been arrested for raping and killing the trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital – on Friday afternoon, a magistrate at the Sealdah court noted that the CBI’s investigating officer was not present for the hearing. 

As Roy’s lawyer made arguments for bail, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pamela Gupta was informed that the public prosecutor would be arriving late. While the wait for the lawyer continued, the magistrate remarked, “Should I grant bail to Sanjay Roy? This reflects a severely lethargic attitude on the part of the CBI. It is very unfortunate.”

The lawyer eventually reached about 40 minutes late, prompting the defence attorney to also raise the issue of the delay. The arguments then continued and, after hearing both sides, the magistrate sent Roy to judicial custody for 14 days. 

Reacting to what had happened in the court, the Trinamool Congress said this reflected a “blatant disregard for justice”. 

“The court got angry, waited, and yet no one came. We want to ask what happened. Why is the opposition not reacting to this? It has been over 24 days and over 570 hours since the CBI took over the investigation, what has been the result? The entire country is asking. This shows that the CBI is not taking the case seriously…” Trinamool Congress leader Chandrima Bhattacharya said.

In two different posts on X, the Trinamool Congress also hit out at the BJP and the CPM.

“Today, during the R G Kar case hearing, the Investigating Officer & Public Prosecutor of @CBIHeadquarters went MIA (missing in action). Is this not an outright insult to the victim? A blatant disregard for justice? Where are the demands for accountability? Have @BJP4India & @CPIM_WESTBENGAL lost their voice?” the party’s handle posted. 

“After 24 days of stalling, @CBIHeadquarters  didn’t even bother to send their Investigating Officer or Public Prosecutor for the R G Kar case hearing. This is nothing short of SABOTAGING JUSTICE!” it said in another post, adding that the CBI should stop “dragging its feet” and the BJP should take out a protest march against this. 

The trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside a seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and her body was found on August 9. Her autopsy report, which put the time of death between 3 and 5 am, revealed that several injuries were inflicted on her before she was smothered to death.

Boeing’s beleaguered Starliner returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) without astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry E Wilmore. 

The gumdrop-shaped capsule landed gently at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 0401 GMT (9:30 am), its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags, having departed the ISS around six hours earlier. 

The #Starliner spacecraft is back on Earth.

At 12:01am ET Sept. 7, @BoeingSpace‘s uncrewed Starliner spacecraft landed in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico. pic.twitter.com/vTYvgPONVc

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) September 7, 2024

After years of delays, Starliner launched in June for what was meant to be a roughly weeklong test mission — a final shakedown before it could be certified to ferry crew to and from the orbital laboratory.

But unexpected thruster malfunctions and helium leaks on its way up derailed those plans, and NASA ultimately decided it was safer to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back on a rival SpaceX Crew Dragon — though they’ll have to wait until February 2025.

The gumdrop-shaped capsule touched down softly at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 0401 GMT, its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags, having departed the ISS around six hours earlier. 

Ground teams reported hearing sonic booms as it streaked red hot across the night sky, having endured temperatures of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius) during atmospheric reentry.

A smooth, uneventful ride was seen as critical not only for salvaging some pride but also for Boeing’s prospects of achieving certification in the future.

The century-old aerospace giant had carried out extensive ground testing aimed at replicating the technical issues the spaceship had experienced on its ascent and devised plans to prevent more problems.

With its reputation already battered by safety concerns affecting its passenger jets, Boeing made assurances in public and in private that it could be trusted to bring the astronauts home — an assessment not shared by NASA.

“Boeing believed in the model that they had created that tried to predict the thruster degradation for the rest of the flight,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told reporters this week. 

But “the NASA team, due to the uncertainty in the modeling, could not get comfortable with that,” he added, characterizing the mood during meetings as “tense.”

– Certification decisions to come –

Shortly after undocking, Starliner executed a powerful “breakout burn” to swiftly clear it from the station and prevent any risk of collision — a maneuver that would have been unnecessary if crew were aboard to take manual control if needed.

Following that, mission teams conducted thorough checks of its thrusters in preparation for the critical “deorbit burn,” required to guide the capsule onto its reentry path around 40 minutes before landing.

While expectations were high that Starliner would stick the landing, as it had in two previous uncrewed tests, NASA will now carefully review all aspects of the mission’s performance before deciding on the next steps.

NASA awarded Boeing and SpaceX multibillion-dollar contracts over a decade ago to develop spacecraft to taxi astronauts to and from the ISS, after the end of the Space Shuttle program left the US space agency reliant on Russian rockets.

Although initially considered the underdog, Elon Musk’s SpaceX surged ahead of mighty Boeing, successfully flying dozens of astronauts since 2020.

The Starliner program, meanwhile, has faced numerous setbacks.

In 2019, during its first uncrewed test flight, a software glitch prevented the capsule from rendezvousing with the ISS. A second software issue, which could have caused a catastrophic collision between its modules, was caught and fixed just in time.

In 2021, with the rocket poised on the launchpad for another attempt, blocked valves forced yet another postponement.

The capsule finally reached the ISS in May 2022 on a non-crewed flight, but further issues, including weak parachutes and flammable tape in the cabin that needed removal, delayed the crewed test.

For the current mission, astronauts Wilmore and Williams had been strapped into their seats and ready to fly twice before last-minute “scrubs” due to technical glitches sent them back to their quarters.

In response to increased terrorism, the Army and J&K Police are training around 600 village defence guards in Jammu on using automatic rifles and tactical drills. This initiative aims to enhance local security ahead of the state assembly elections from Sept 18 to Oct 1, following earlier training sessions in Rajouri, Doda, and Kishtwar regions.