Ex-head of India's RG Kar College charged for alleged evidence tampering in rape case

By Subrata Nag Choudhary

KOLKATA (Reuters) - India's federal police have charged the former head of R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata with tampering with evidence linked to the rape and murder of a junior female doctor, a case that triggered weeks of nationwide protests.

Former college principal Sandip Ghosh is already in police custody for suspected graft. The additional charges were made against him in a petition filed on Saturday by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before a court and which was seen by Reuters.

The CBI also arrested Abhijit Mondal, the officer in charge of police station that has jurisdiction over the college, for failing to protect the crime scene, a source with a direct knowledge of the matter said.

Asked about Mondal's arrest, a senior Kolkata police official said: "We will respond to the charges in court."

The lawyer representing Ghosh could not be immediately reached for comment.

The rape and murder of the 31-year-old doctor, whose body was found at the college more than a month ago, set off a wave of protests by doctors demanding greater safety for women in the workplace and justice for their slain colleague.

In its petition, the CBI charged Ghosh with "deliberate destruction of evidence" in the case. It said that Ghosh, and others, allegedly delayed declaring the victim's death as well as filing a first information report, which led to the destruction of vital evidence.

Junior doctors in India's West Bengal state, of which Kolkata is the capital, have vowed to maintain their protests until justice for the slain doctor is meted out.

(Reporting by Subrata Nag Choudhary, writing by Dhwani Pandya; editing by Miral Fahmy)