Kolkata, Sep 4 : The Supreme Court's hearing on the R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital rape-murder case on Thursday will to a great extent determine the next strategy for the Trinamool Congress, which is already on the back foot due to the continued mass protests in the state over the issue.

Party insiders said on condition of anonymity that the next strategy will depend on the findings that will surface in the progress report on the investigation to be submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the apex court on Thursday.

'If the progress report has something really very damaging for the state government, then the strategy will be adopted accordingly, and if it is not then the strategy will be different,' said a senior party leader who did not wish to be named.

He added that in case the progress report does not reveal any major inroads into the investigation of the rape and murder case that will be an opportunity for the party to again raise questions about the CBI's credibility.

However, he added, if the progress report reveals anything sensitive, then the next strategy will have to be more about caution and to an extent defensive.

Similarly, the party leader added that equally crucial will be the course of arguments in the courtroom and observations made by the apex court bench in the matter.

He admitted that the eventuality of adverse observations would surely pose yet another round of embarrassment both for the state government and the ruling dispensation.

Meanwhile, the junior doctors and medical students of different medical colleges in the state have already claimed that their protest demonstrations in the rape and murder case will continue unless the investigation into the matter reaches a logical conclusion.

On Tuesday, a delegation of junior doctors met the Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal and handed him a memorandum demanding his resignation besides accepting moral responsibilities for the lapses on the part of the city police in handling the initial investigation.

/IANS