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CBI arrests Ashish Pandey in Bengal’s RG Kar Hospital irregularities case
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said the CBI has sent a strong message in the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital case by arresting Ashish Pandey
KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested Dr Ashish Pandey of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in connection with the alleged financial irregularities in the state-run hospital between 2021 and 2024.
“We have arrested Dr Ashish Pandey in connection with the financial irregularities. He was questioned multiple times. He will be produced in the court on Friday,” said a CBI officer.
Doctors said Pandey was associated with the Trinamool Congress’s youth wing at the hospital and was extremely close to Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the medical college who was arrested by the CBI.
With Dr Pandey’s arrest, CBI has arrested five people in connection with the alleged irregularities. Ghosh and three others, his security guard Afsar Ali Khan and two vendors, Biplab Singha and Suman Hazra, who are accused of having received illegal favours, were arrested on September 2 by CBI which was ordered by the Calcutta high court to probe the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Hospital on August 9 and the alleged financial irregularities during Ghosh’s tenure.
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP legislator and leader of the opposition in the state assembly told reporters that CBI has sent a strong message by arresting Pandey. “People such as Ghosh and Pandey used to run a corruption-syndicate in RG Kar Hospital. Pandey was one of the main perpetrators of threat culture,” he said.
TMC legislator Arup Chakraborty said his party’s stand was clear on the issue, “Whoever is involved in the crime should be punished. But people want to know from the CBI what progress it has made in in the probe into alleged rape and murder case so that the victim gets justice? There is no point if the agency makes an arrest, makes tall claims and then the person gets bail after three months,” Chakraborty said.
Pandey also figured in the list of 59 doctors, interns and staffers at the hospital who were issued show-cause notices by the hospital and asked to appear before an enquiry committee.
Pandey was heckled when he went to the hospital to appear before the enquiry committee last week and had to be rescued by central security personnel deployed at the complex.
