Kolkata, July 17: Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal, who is currently the Additional Director General of Special Task Force of Kolkata Police, on Thursday apologised to the Calcutta High Court for “inadvertently” revealing the name of the R.G. Kar rape and murder case victim.
Goyal wrote a letter to the Division Bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta, tendering an unconditional apology for the “inadvertent” action. Considering that the former City Police Chief had tendered an unconditional apology in the matter, the Division Bench also decided to close the matter there.
However, at the same time, the Division Bench also observed that the action of taking the name of the rape and murder victim was not at all desirable. Justice Mantha also suggested that a workshop involving personnel from the state and city police forces be organised to create awareness on what to say and what not to say to the media on a sub-judice or sensitive matter.
On Wednesday, only Goyal’s name was dragged into controversy as the counsel of the parents of the R.G. Kar victim expressed doubts at a trial court in Kolkata that the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the matter might not be a neutral one considering one top official of the central agency, Additional Director, Sampat Meena, and Goyal were of the same India Police Service (IPS) batch.
The CBI officer named by the counsel at the trial court on Wednesday was Sampat Meena, who has overall charge of the investigation of the rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on the hospital premises in August last year. To recall, Goyal was the city police chief when the ghastly crime took place, and the initial investigation into the matter by the special investigation also started under his leadership.
However, following a massive public uproar, Goyal was removed from the chair of the city police chief soon after. Later, CBI also took over the investigation following an order from the Calcutta High Court. Both Sampat Meena and Vineet Kumar Goyal were IPS officers of the 1994 batch.
IANS