CBI starts probe into RG Kar Hospital scams; raids on in Kolkata, Howrah

Officials from the CBI’s anti-corruption branch raided around 15 places in Kolkata and adjacent Howrah district from Sunday morning

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday began investigating the alleged financial scams at Kolkata’s State-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital following orders the Calcutta high court passed on Friday, officials of the federal agency said.

CBI officials outside the residence of former principal of RG Kar Medical College Sandip Ghosh in Kolkata on Sunday. (PTI)

Officials from the CBI’s anti-corruption branch raided around 15 places in Kolkata and adjacent Howrah district from Sunday morning, including the residence of the institution’s former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh who is already under the federal agency’s scanner in the August 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old post-graduate trainee doctor.

CBI officials said Ghosh, who took a polygraph test on Saturday in the rape and murder case, opened the gates of his east Kolkata home more than an hour after the investigators arrived on Sunday morning.

Others whose homes were raided include the hospital’s former superintendent Dr Sanjay Vashisth, who, too, is facing probe in the rape and murder case.

On Friday, a Calcutta high court single bench of justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj ordered the CBI probe after hearing a petition filed by Dr Akhtar Ali, the hospital’s former deputy superintendent.

Ali moved the high court seeking a probe into alleged malpractices and financial scams during the tenure of Sandip Ghosh.

Ali, who was the hospital’s deputy superintendent till 2023, has accused Ghosh of illegally using unclaimed corpses, illegally selling biomedical waste and passing tenders against commission paid by medicine and medical equipment suppliers.

This is the second investigation being conducted by CBI at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital under the supervision of the high court.

On August 13, the division bench of chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya transferred the rape and murder investigation from the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police to CBI after hearing a petition filed by the victim’s parents. They have expressed dissatisfaction with the police although it arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer working for the Kolkata Police, as prime suspect on August 10.

Roy, who is now in judicial custody and lodged at Kolkata’s Presidency correctional home, is supposed to take a polygraph test on Sunday afternoon.

The Supreme Court has taken over the hearing in the August 9 crime.