Justice: Justified Outrage as ‘Hope’ for Struggles on Tilottama Rape and Murder Case

At this point, there wouldn’t be too many people across West Bengal and India who wouldn’t know of the horrific incident of rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata, a state-run super-specialty medical establishment at the heart of one of the four erstwhile metro cities of India. A lot has been spoken about the modus operandi, the politics, and the sociology of the offense by people across the political spectrum and the social pyramid. The city has witnessed an unexpectedly vibrant furor of protesting masses for an unprecedented length of time. But as happens with most social issues, at least in today’s day and age, the outrage that had overstayed the expectations of people did die out eventually. And why would it not? People have lives to live, families to provide for, professions to pursue, and commitments to cater to.

Today, however, people are forced to dodge their hiatus and take a rain check on their conscience and person-politics in the light of the granting of bail to the ex-principal of RG Kar Medical College and the on-duty Officer in Charge of the local police station on the grounds of expiration of the 90 days for filing of preliminary chargesheet. To provide some clarity on this situation, the standard protocol as per criminal procedure practised in India is that once an FIR is filed with the police accusing someone of an offence, the police have up to 60 days for general offenses and 90 days for aggravated offenses to conduct preliminary investigations and file the preliminary chargesheet containing the charges so framed after having acquired substantive evidence to that effect. In the process of such an investigation, if the police and the Magistrate deem fit, they may take the accused into police custody for the purpose of questioning. However, if, for some reason, the police or the investigating authorities are unable to gather sufficient evidence to support their framing of the chargesheet by the expiration of tge said 60 or 90-day period, the accused individual who has been apprehended and kept in custody has every right to appeal before the court and be out on bail.

This is precisely what happened in light of the incident at hand. The ex-principal, however, has not been released from custody because he’s managed to get bail for one out of the plethora of cases he’s being investigated for. At this juncture, people must understand that this doesn’t imply their acquittal from the case. They will still be investigated, and the chargesheet shall be filed promptly. One may question the intention of the investigation agency by looking at their pace of work, as they should. We are familiar with scenarios where people have been apprehended for investigation and have suffered endlessly while seeking bail even after the expiration of their 60 or 90-day period, whereas the speedy discharge in select cases only smells of unholy synergies. Yet, this is to assure the ones who went back to their daily lives and livelihood from someone whose daily life and livelihood revolves around navigating the space of criminal laws and procedures, this is not the end of justice.

This is just the beginning of justice, which can only be achieved if we believe in it and put our best foot forward towards that end.

Author is a teacher of Law at the O P Jindal Global School and a post graduate in Law from University of Edinburgh. Comments are personal.