Kolkata doctor rape case: SG Mehta schools Kapil Sibal while hearing in SC, says ’Don’t laugh at least...’

Amid the ongoing hearing at the Supreme Court, related to the medical student's rape and murder at Kolkata's RG Kar hospital, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta reprimanded senior lawyer Kapil Sibal.

Tushar Mehta, representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), was irked by his colleague Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, during the exchange of arguments, as Kapil allegedly laughed during the proceedings.

"...so this is from the general entry," News18 quoted a video of SG Mehta that prompted an intervention from Sibal. Following this, Mehta said, "A girl has lost her life in the most inhuman and undignified manner. Somebody has died. Do not at least laugh."

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared a clip of the entire proceeding, slamming senior advocate Kapil Sibal for his ‘complete insensitivity.’

He wrote on X, "Like (West Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee, the legal team representing the WB Govt, led by former Congressman Kapil Sibal, showed no remorse, whatsoever, for having killed the young doctor twice…Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had to remind Kapil Sibal ‘not to laugh’.”

What SC said?

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court bench — led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud — expressed surprise over the legal procedures followed by the police while probing the highly sensitive case.

The bench was concerned about how the victim's postmortem was done between 6.10 pm and 7.10 pm on 9 August, before the case was officially registered as an unnatural death. This even raised serious questions regarding the proper adherence to standard legal protocols in the probe.

“How was it that the postmortem was conducted at 6.10 pm on August 9 and yet the unnatural death information is sent to Tala police station at 11.30 pm on August 9. This is extremely disturbing,” News18 quoted the bench, comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, as saying.

To this, Mehta said that the FIR was registered at 11.45 pm following the postgraduate medical student's cremation.

In its report, the CBI mentioned the victim’s family was misled about their daughter’s death and also added that the crime scene was altered. The Kolkata Police had told the victim's family that the medic died due to suicide.

With agency inputs.