Kolkata, May 19 : The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to immediately seal all the areas in the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital that may be linked with the ghastly rape & murder of a junior woman doctor there in August 2024.

A division bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar and Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, which had been recently assigned the matter, at the end of its first hearing, specially directed the agency to ensure that the seal of the seminar room within the hospital premises where the body of the victim was detected in the morning of August 9, 2024, remained intact.

It also directed the CBI to seal other suspected sports within the hospital premises, like the office and chamber of the then Principal, Sandip Ghosh, who is already tainted both in the rape & murder case as well as the multi-crore financial irregularities in the said medical college & hospital.

During the hearing on Tuesday on the petition by the family members of the victim seeking permission to visit the scene of the crime, the division bench asked the CBI counsel whether the seminar room was still in a sealed condition or the seal had been removed.

When the CBI counsel informed the court that the seal was still there, the counsel of the victimâ??s family informed the court that the office and chamber of Ghosh had not been sealed. Thereafter, the division bench again questioned the CBI counsel whether the investigating officials of the central agency did not feel it necessary to seal spots other than the seminar room for the sake of proper investigation.

It directed the CBI to immediately seal all the suspected spots within the hospital premises that might have links with the tragedy. The next hearing in the matter had been scheduled on May 21.

After the previous division bench headed by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha recused from hearing the matter on May 12, observing that "this important case needs to be heard quickly", the Calcutta High Courtâ??s Chief Justice Sujoy Paul, on May 15, referred the matter to the division bench of Justice Sarkar and Justice Ghosh.

/IANS