West Bengal Police on Thursday said the absconding former chief of Panihati Municipality in North 24 Parganas district, Somnath Dey, the third co-accused in the conspiracy of the hurried cremation of the R.G. Kar rape-murder victim’s body in August 2024, was arrested in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The body of the female doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was recovered from a seminar hall within the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024.
Dey is currently in custody of a team of West Bengal Police officers. The public prosecutor will seek his police custody in the case. Both are in judicial custody now. Dey went missing after the West Bengal Police started an investigation into the angle of hurried cremation conspiracy and identified Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey as the three principal conspirators. To recall, while speaking at a programme on the occasion of the second death anniversary of the R.G. It is suspected that the last rites at a crematorium at Panihati were allegedly carried out to eliminate the chance of a second post-mortem of the body. Thereafter, a fresh FIR was registered at Khardah Police Station under the Barrackpore Police Commissariat naming Nirmal Ghosh, Sanjeev Mukherjee and Somnath Dey. The FIR was registered based on a fresh complaint filed by the victim’s father.
He will be brought to Kolkata on transit remand later in the day and then will be presented before the Barrackpore district court in North 24 Parganas district. Kar rape and murder victim on August 8, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced a fresh probe by the Barrackpore Police Commissariat in the hurried cremation case.
Earlier, two other co-accused in the hurried cremation conspiracy case, namely the former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family at Panihati, were arrested by the state police.
