West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said that three Indian Police Service officers have been suspended for allegedly mishandling the case pertaining to the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in 2024, The Indian Express reported.

The officers are Vineet Goyal, who was the Kolkata police commissioner at the time, Abhishek Gupta, the then deputy commissioner of police (north), and Indira Mukherjee, who was the deputy commissioner of police (central).

Speaking to reporters, Adhikari claimed that the officers had offered bribes to the family of the victim and had conducted press conferences without a written order, the newspaper reported.

Departmental proceedings will be initiated against them, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader added.

The mother of the doctor, Ratna Debnath, on May 4 won the Panihati constituency in the West Bengal Assembly elections on a BJP ticket.

She defeated Tirthankar Ghosh, the Trinamool Congress candidate, by over 28,000 votes. Overall, the BJP won 206 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.

The case

On August 9, 2024, the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found dead on the premises of the state-run hospital. The death had sparked protests across the country.

Sanjoy Roy, who was convicted for the doctor’s rape and murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2025.

In February 2025, the Calcutta High Court admitted an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation seeking a death sentence for Roy.

After the rape and murder came to light, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front led protests for several weeks, demanding the resignation of senior officials and an end to the “threat culture” in the state’s medical centres.

Healthcare services in West Bengal were hit for several weeks due to the strikes.

The CBI is separately looking into alleged tampering of evidence in the case and alleged corruption at the medical facility. Those accused in the case include the hospital’s former principal Sandip Ghosh and an ex-officer-in-charge of the Tala police station.

Also read: Interview: RG Kar protester is ‘shocked, shattered’ to see victim’s mother contest on BJP ticket