Two women officers of CBI who had investigated the Unnao case have been given the responsibility of investigating the Kolkata rape case

The investigation into the Kolkata doctor’s rape-murder case has been handed over to two top women officers of the CBI, who have handled some such serious cases with great success in the past. Sampat Meena, a 1994 batch IPS officer from Jharkhand who handled the Hathras rape-murder case and the Unnao rape case, has the overall charge. She is accompanied by officer Seema Pahuja, who was also part of the Hathras investigation team.

Who are the two top women officers?

Additional Director Meena is now in-charge of a team of 25 officers and will work in a supervisory capacity. The ground-level investigation will be handled by Pahuja, who had secured a conviction in the rape-murder case of a Class 10 student in Himachal Pradesh, which was till then considered a blind case.

The 2017 Gudiya case

The 2017 Gudiya case had jolted the hill state. The teenager went missing while returning from school. The route led through a dense forest where she was abducted. Her body was found two days later. She had been raped and strangled to death. Anil Kumar, a woodcutter, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021.

Also handled Unnao rape case

In April 2018, the CBI had revealed how Pahuja had cracked the case using advanced DNA technology of genealogical matching. After questioning over 1,000 locals, he finally tested DNA of over 250 people and found a match with forensic samples of the accused’s father. The son, who was out on bail and absconding, was later traced. The team had also secured a conviction in the 2017 Unnao rape case.

BJP leader and local MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who was later expelled from the party, was sentenced to life in prison for the gangrape of a 17-year-old Dalit girl. He was also found guilty of the death of the girl’s father in judicial custody, for which he is serving a 10-year jail term.

Hathras case also investigated

In the 2020 Hathras case, which made headlines across the country and generated massive public outrage, a 19-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by four men from a so-called upper caste. A fortnight later, she succumbed to her injuries at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. What further fuelled public outrage was the fact that the Uttar Pradesh police and administration allegedly cremated her body without the consent or presence of her family.

Three of the four accused in the case have been acquitted. The fourth, Sandeep Thakur, has been convicted not for rape or murder but for culpable homicide. The court had given its verdict based on the mismatch between the woman’s statement and forensic evidence. The police had claimed there was no evidence of rape and the woman had died of a neck injury.

Received a medal for her work

The state police was accused of gross lapses at every stage of the case – from delay in filing the first information report to denial of rape and hasty cremation of the body. In view of the public outrage, on October 3, 2020, the state government suspended five police officers, including the Superintendent of Police.

CBI officer Seema was once employed with the investigating agency’s Anti Corruption Bureau in Ghaziabad. She has earned accolades within the Central Bureau of Investigation as an investigating officer in several important cases. Seema was awarded the Police Medal on August 15, 2014 for her work as a CBI officer.