Cracked several sensational rape and murder cases; two seasoned officers of CBI to lead investigation in Kolkata case

NEW DELHI: Two seasoned female officers of the CBI, who cracked several high-profile cases in the country, will lead the investigation into the gruesome rape and murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata. The CBI has assigned the case to Additional Director Sampat Meena and Additional Superintendent Seema Pahuja.

Sampat Meena was the officer who led the investigations into the sensational Hathras rape-murder case in 2020 and the Unnao rape case involving a BJP leader in 2017. Seema Pahuja was also a key member of the team that probed the Hathras case.

Sampat Meena is a 1994 batch IPS officer from Jharkhand. Seema Pahuja is a distinguished officer who was awarded a gold medal twice for excellent investigation between 2007 and 2018. She had earlier sought to retire from service citing personal reasons, but was persuaded to stay on by the then CBI Director.

Some years ago, Seema Pahuja had achieved a conviction in the sensational case where a Class 10 girl was raped and murdered in Himachal Pradesh. On July 4, 2017, the 16-year-old girl was attacked while returning home from school. She was raped and murdered in a forest in Kotkhai, Shimla. The state police's inability to arrest the accused had led to widespread protests across the state. The case was later taken over by the CBI, with Seema Pahuja leading the investigation. During the subsequent investigation, a woodcutter was found guilty. The accused was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001.