BJP MLA Ratna Debnath questions slow CBI probe into daughter’s RG Kar case

Ratna Debnath, who became the BJP's Panihati MLA in the May 2026 Assembly election months after losing her 31-year-old daughter in the 2024 RG Kar Medical College rape-murder case, said at a local programme that she remains deeply frustrated with the pace of the CBI's investigation. She questioned why the doctors she and her family suspect were involved in the crime have still not been arrested, and said the swift outcome she had expected once the state changed hands under chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has not materialised.

Debnath, who entered politics after her daughter's death, said she had largely tried to honour her daughter's wish that the family stay away from politics, but that the investigation's slow progress had left her with few other avenues to press for answers. She has appeared in person at recent Calcutta High Court hearings on the case, including one last week where CBI officials briefed a division bench of Justices Shampa Sarkar and Tirthankar Ghosh on the fresh probe's status.

The court has voiced its own frustration with the pace of the investigation, and has now directed the CBI to complete the fresh probe within three weeks, with the next hearing set for September 24. The renewed investigation followed Adhikari's announcement of a fresh inquiry on the case's second anniversary in August, and a subsequent FIR filed on her father's complaint over what the family has alleged was a hurried cremation carried out to prevent a second post-mortem. The CBI has since arrested people, including a former state legislator, in connection with the alleged evidence tampering, though the main rape-murder case remains a separate track within the agency's probe.

Since taking office, Adhikari's government has also suspended senior police officers over their handling of the original case, and has alleged that officers under the previous administration attempted to settle with the victim's family on the state's behalf, an allegation the family has not confirmed independently.