Kolkata, September 4, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Panihati Municipality chairman Somnath Dey, arrested in connection with the alleged conspiracy surrounding the hurried cremation of the RG Kar rape-murder victim’s body, faced protests from local residents as police took him from Khardah Police Station to Barrackpore Court on Friday.
Dey, who had been absconding, was arrested in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on Thursday morning. He was subsequently brought to Kolkata on transit remand and taken to Khardah Police Station after arriving at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
News of his arrival drew a crowd outside the police station. As police escorted Dey out, some protesters allegedly threw eggs and stones at him. Police personnel quickly put a helmet on Dey to protect him from the attack. It was not immediately clear whether he sustained any injuries, while a few police personnel reportedly suffered minor injuries while shielding him.
Dey was later produced before the Barrackpore Court, where police sought his custody for interrogation in the alleged conspiracy concerning the hurried cremation of the victim’s body.
Dey is the third accused arrested in the case. Former Trinamool Congress legislator from Panihati, Nirmal Ghosh, and Sanjeev Mukherjee, a neighbour of the victim’s family in Panihati, had been arrested earlier by the state police. Both are currently in judicial custody.
Dey had gone missing after the West Bengal Police began investigating the alleged hurried-cremation conspiracy and identified Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey as the principal accused.
On August 8, while speaking at a programme marking the second death anniversary of the RG Kar victim, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced a fresh probe by the Barrackpore Police Commissariat into the cremation-related allegations.
The victim’s father subsequently filed a fresh complaint, following which an FIR was registered at Khardah Police Station under the Barrackpore Police Commissariat naming Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey. The allegations centre on the claim that the victim’s body was hurriedly taken to a crematorium in Panihati and cremated in a manner that allegedly breached prescribed procedures and eliminated the possibility of a second post-mortem.
All three accused had initially gone absconding. Ghosh was arrested last month in neighbouring Odisha, followed by Mukherjee’s arrest from a house in Chinar Park, Kolkata. Dey remained untraceable until his arrest in Bengaluru.
The body of the woman doctor at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was recovered from a seminar hall on the hospital premises on the morning of August 9, 2024. She was subsequently found to have been raped and murdered the previous night.
Allegations later emerged that her body had been taken to a Panihati crematorium and cremated hastily, with the process allegedly supervised by Ghosh, Mukherjee and Dey. The latest investigation is examining their alleged roles in the cremation and the circumstances surrounding the handling of the body.
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