RG Kar case: Why the case is back in court two years later

The RG Kar case is back in the spotlight, more than two years after a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

But the latest development is not about the conviction of Sanjay Roy. It concerns a different set of questions: what happened in the hours after the doctor’s death, how was the case handled, and do any of those actions require further criminal investigation?

On October 2, The Calcutta High Court directed Khardah Police Station to stop its investigation into allegations surrounding the doctor’s cremation and hand over the case records to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The move is a separate police case concerning the cremation is now under the same CBI lead investigation that is examining wider allegations about the handling of the case.

What is the new investigation about?

The latest FIR followed a complaint filed by the victim’s father at Khardah Police Station on August 10, 2026, concerning the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s cremation.

The complaint alleged that the cremation was conducted hurriedly and that the manner in which it was carried out could have resulted in the destruction of evidence. The father also alleged that the body was cremated without the family’s consent in a way that prevented the possibility of a second autopsy.

These are allegations made in the complaint and have not been established as facts by a court.

The state police registered a case and arrested three people including former Panihati MLA Nirmal Ghosh. Their alleged involvement will now fall under the CBI investigation.

The High Court questioned the need for a separate state police investigation when a CBI SIT was examining allegations concerning the sequence of events surrounding the doctor's death and cremation.

On October 2, the court directed Khardah Police to hand over the investigation to the CBI SIT. The CBI will now take a view on the custody of those arrested in the Khardah case.

Why is the CBI examining this now?

The present investigation is part of a wider legal process that has been taking place months ago.

In May 2026, The Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to constitute a three-member SIT to examine allegations concerning possible attempts to suppress or minimize aspects of the RG Kar case.

The court asked the team to examine the sequence of events from the night of August 9, 2024, through the doctor's death and her cremation the following day.

The order came after the victim’s parents raised questions about the handling of the case and alleged that more than one person could have been involved. Those claims remain part of the investigation and have not been established by the court.

On September 24, 2026, the CBI submitted a sealed report to the Calcutta High Court concerning its investigation into the alleged conspiracy. The proceedings on this aspect are being held in camera, with further arguments scheduled for Nov 20.

That means the court is now examining questions that go beyond the person already convicted: whether the events surrounding the crime and its immediate aftermath involved other acts that could be criminal wrongdoing.

What has already been established?

Sanjay Roy, a former Kolkata Police civic volunteer, was convicted by a Sealdah court for the rape and murder of the doctor.

In January 2025, he was sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his life. The court also directed the West Bengal government to pay ₹17 lakh in compensation to the victim’s family.

The CBI’s first chargesheet named Roy as the sole accused in the rape-murder case, and did not allege gang rape.

That conviction remains a separate part of the case from the fresh investigation now being examined by the High Court.

The victim’s parents have continued to raise questions about whether Roy acted alone, and the handling of the case after the crime. The CBI SIT’s current mandate is examining those wider allegations, it does not, by itself, mean that a larger conspiracy or additional perpetrators have been established.

So, what changes after the October 2 order?

The immediate change is about who investigates the cremation-related allegations.

The Khardah Police investigation will no longer proceed separately; its records will be handed over to the CBI SIT, which is already examining the broader sequence of events.

That matters because two separate investigations into overlapping events could potentially produce different findings or duplicated evidence collection. The High Court has placed the cremation-related case within the existing CBI investigation.

But there is an important distinction.

The October 2 order does not overturn Sanjay Roy’s conviction. Nor does it establish that evidence was deliberately destroyed, that a conspiracy existed, or that additional people were responsible for the rape and murder.

Those are questions for the ongoing investigation, and ultimately the courts, to determine.

For a case that began with the death of a young doctor inside a Kolkata hospital in August 2024, the legal story has therefore moved beyond the question of who was convicted.

The next chapter is about the unanswered questions surrounding what happened before, during and after the crime, and which of those allegations can ultimately be proved in court.