Kolkata: Senior lawyer Vrinda Grover has withdrawn from the high-profile RG Kar case in the Supreme Court, Calcutta High Court and Sealdah Court, where separate cases are being heard on the gruesome rape and murder of an on-duty trainee doctor inside a government-run hospital in the city.
A statement issued by her chamber Wednesday said that due to “intervening factors and circumstances”, Grover is “constrained to withdraw from the case proceedings in this matter” and will no longer be representing the trainee doctor’s family.
Speaking to ThePrint, the trainee doctor’s father claimed, Grover’s “fighting spirit was missing”. Grover had offered her service to the aggrieved family pro bono since September in the legal fight against the state and administrative officials to seek justice for their daughter.
“Somewhere we felt, the spirit to fight for justice was missing in Vrinda Grover, but it was her choice to quit this case. And anyway, the matter currently in the Supreme Court doesn’t need a legal representative. As parents, we have very little role in the SC hearing,” said the father. He added that the CBI probe hasn’t seen any breakthrough and that their fight for justice is getting tougher with each passing day.
“The CBI doesn’t say much, they are investigating, but we can’t see the light of justice, so far. Our fight isn’t close to over, it has only become difficult seeing the present status of the case,” he said.
The statement issued by Grover also stated, “The victim family has been represented every day, in the day-to-day trial in Sealdah sessions court, since 4 November, 2024, and also before the ACJM [Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate] Court for remand hearing on all dates of production since 25 September, 2024. During this period, the evidence of 43 prosecution witnesses has been recorded, and bail of other accused persons consistently and successfully opposed.”
Grover, along with her associates, Soutik Banerjee and Arjun Gooptu were representing the family. “The prosecution has been assisted professionally by the complainant counsels and the same has been observed by the learned trial court on multiple occasions. As lawyers and officers of the court, Advocate Vrinda Grover and her legal associates render legal services, only in accordance with law, evidence and professional ethics,” it added.
Speaking to ThePrint, Vrinda Grover denied any “pressure”, and said that she wouldn’t like to say anything outside the statement issued by her office. “Those in Kolkata, would know better why I have decided to step down but I would not like to make any comments,” she said.
Another counsel from Grover’s chamber told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, that they were unable to agree on “certain things” the family wanted to do, and that there was a difference of opinion between them and the legal team.
“So, we felt, as officers of the court, that we should withdraw from the matter,” he added. “They are under the impression that lawyers should conduct themselves like protesting junior doctors. They want to implicate people without evidence. They want to even make allegations against the CBI before the court,” said the lawyer to ThePrint.
‘Family is getting influenced’
Vrinda Grover is not the first prominent legal counsel to step down from this case. Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya also withdrew in September, prior to Grover taking over the legal battle on behalf of the parents. Bhattacharya asserts that the family requested him to return the “brief” through a letter sent via WhatsApp.
“I was rather shocked when I read the letter. It seemed to be a well drafted letter by a lawyer. It seemed they were being influenced, I don’t know by whom, and asked me to leave the Supreme Court matter,” said Bhattacharya to ThePrint.
He had filed the first plea on behalf of the trainee doctor’s parents before the Calcutta HC, seeking a CBI probe in their daughter’s rape-murder, which was being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“As a lawyer, my dignity made me step aside because the Supreme Court cannot bring relief to the family. The main matter is being heard in Kolkata but all three hearings are connected and what happens in the Supreme Court, has an impact at Calcutta High Court and then in the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court as well. So, I feel the family is being influenced and my hunch is, it’s political in nature because it seems like they are running after glamour,” he added.
According to Bhattacharya, while the investigations have progressed under the CBI, the family has been handling the legal fight peculiarly.
“They wanted a different lawyer for the Supreme Court hearing and different lawyer for the High Court hearing, how is that possible?” he added.
The incident
On 9 August 2024, the body of an on-duty junior doctor from the chest department of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was discovered in the seminar room of the emergency building. The post-mortem report revealed she had been brutally raped and murdered. The Kolkata Police quickly arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with the force, in connection with the crime. However, just a week into the investigation, the case was transferred to the CBI for a thorough investigation.
The incident had sparked months of protests across the state, with junior doctors from all government hospitals staging sit-in protests and later initiating a hunger strike. Their aim was to draw the state administration’s attention to the safety of doctors on duty in hospitals and to demand justice for their slain colleague.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Current day West Bengal would bewilder and befuddle even George Orwell. It has long surpassed the Orwellian fantasies.
Everything’s rotten in the state of West Bengal.