A day after he was arrested over his alleged involvement in the “hurried cremation” of the trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in 2024, former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Nirmal Ghosh faced an angry mob that threw eggs and mud at him as he was being escorted by the police in West Bengal.
The scene unfolded in the North 24 Parganas district. The former member of the West Bengal Assembly was being taken to a local court under police custody when a crowd gathered outside the police station.
Ghosh, who was wearing a helmet to shield himself from the eggs, was also apparently garlanded with shoes and slippers and thrashed by the crowd as police escorted him towards the police van.
Later, people raised “chor, chor (thief, thief)” chants against him outside the court where he was being produced.
His co-accused, Panihati Municipality councillor Somnath Dey and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family, were also targeted in the same manner.
Ghosh was picked up from Odisha’s Sambhalpur on Thursday on charges of destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy, and forcing someone to carry out an act against their will, they said.
He is the former MLA of the Panihati constituency, which is now represented by the female doctor’s mother and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Ratna Debnath.
FRESH SCRUTINY OVER CREMATION
Ghosh’s arrest came two days after an FIR was registered against him in connection with the matter. The case was filed on the basis of a fresh complaint lodged by the victim’s father on Monday.
The complainant alleged that Ghosh was among the three who had forced the “hurried cremation” of his daughter’s body.
In his complaint, the doctor’s father alleged that her cremation was carried out in undue haste under the supervision of the trio, allegedly to prevent the possibility of a second autopsy and thus conceal evidence.
Attending a memorial programme for the doctor in Panihati on Sunday, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had directed the Barrackpore Police Commissioner to launch a fresh probe into the alleged hasty cremation.
He had said there were questions over the cremation, including the alleged waiver of the cremation fee and the absence of signatures of the victim’s family members on the relevant documents.
According to a senior police officer of the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate, the new case is separate from the CBI investigation into the rape and murder of the doctor.
“The CBI is probing the rape and murder case at RG Kar hospital, which falls under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police. The new FIRs lodged at Khardah police station are based on complaints by the family of the deceased that the body was cremated in a hurry without the consent of the family members to hush up evidence,” the officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
– Ends
(With inputs from PTI)
Published On:
Aug 14, 2026 15:07 IST
