MP | 18 July 2025 | Kolkata: Former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal, currently posted as Additional Director General of the Special Task Force of Kolkata Police, on Thursday tendered an unconditional apology before the Calcutta High Court for “inadvertently” disclosing the identity of the RG Kar rape and murder case victim.
In a letter addressed to the Division Bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta, Goyal expressed regret for revealing the victim’s name and offered an unconditional apology.
Taking note of the apology, the court decided to close the matter. However, the court observed that the act of naming a rape and murder victim was “not at all desirable”.
Justice Mantha also suggested the need for a workshop involving state and city police officials to raise awareness about appropriate conduct while dealing with sensitive or sub-judice matters in the media.
The issue surfaced a day earlier when the counsel representing the parents of the deceased junior doctor raised concerns during proceedings at a trial court in Kolkata.
The counsel questioned the neutrality of the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, citing that Sampat Meena, the Additional Director of CBI who oversees the investigation, and Goyal belonged to the same 1994 batch of the Indian Police Service.
The junior doctor was raped and murdered inside the campus of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024.
At the time of the incident, Goyal was the Kolkata Police Commissioner and headed the Special Investigation Team that initially probed the matter.
Amid widespread public outrage, Goyal was removed from his post as city police chief and the High Court had subsequently transferred the investigation to the CBI.
