CBI detains ex-RG Kar Medical College principal; 20 others held for rampage
The Kolkata Police arrested 20 people, including a woman, till Friday afternoon in connection with the rampage at the hospital’s emergency department
Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday detained Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, for questioning in the August 9 alleged rape and murder of the 31-year-old junior doctor at the hospital’s chest department, where she was on duty, officials of the federal agency said.
Ghosh was grilled alongside Dr Arunava Dutta Chowdhury, who took charge as head of the chest department on August 1, and the hospital’s former superintendent, Dr Sanjay Vashisth, who, like Ghosh, was transferred after the crime. Dutta Chowdhury and Vashisth were questioned for more than eight hours on Thursday as well.
In a parallel development, the Kolkata police arrested 20 people, including a woman, till Friday afternoon in connection with the rampage at the hospital’s emergency department—where the chest department is located on the third floor—by a mob that stormed into the hospital around 12.40 am on August 15.
The mob destroyed hospital property on the ground floor emergency ward, a ward on the first floor, and the ENT department on the second floor while junior doctors were holding their agitation outside seeking justice for the victim.
“Nine people were arrested after they were identified from security camera footage. The others were arrested on the basis of information provided by these nine,” Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal said at a press conference in the afternoon hours after the division bench of the Calcutta high court chief justice, which transferred the rape and murder case from the police to the CBI on August 13, pulled up the state government for failing to stop the mob. The government told the court that the mob comprised around 7,000 people.
“There were too many people for the small number of policemen to stop the breach of peace. If you say it is a failure of assessment on our part, then it is so,” Goyal said.
Those arrested for the rampage did not have any common background, and many seemed to have no political affiliation, contrary to allegations made by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties of orchestrating the violence. The latter, on the other hand, blamed Trinamool Congress.
Jit Biswas, one of the arrested youths, is a tea stall owner’s son with no criminal background, the police found.
Sheikh Sajan, a resident of Lake Town on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata, was also arrested. “He did not do the right thing. He said he was going to a protest rally,” Arjina Bibi, the mother of the accused, told a Bengali news channel. She said her daughter was recently admitted to the same hospital.
Soumik Das, a third accused, was held from the East Sinthee area in Dum Dum. He was caught on camera breaking the gate of the emergency department with an iron rod. Talking to the media before the arrest, Das said, “I went to a protest rally with a lot of other people. We had no intention of going on a rampage.”
The local Trinamool Congress (TMC) councillor from Dum Dum, Raja Sen Sharma, claimed before the media that Das was not affiliated with any political party.
The interrogation of Ghosh was welcomed by the agitating students at RG Kar Hospital.
“We were saying from day one that he should be questioned,” Soumyadip Roy, a junior doctor, said.
Ghosh was summoned by CBI on Friday, but instead of going to the agency’s office at the Salt Lake CGO Complex, he moved a petition through a lawyer before the bench of the Calcutta high court chief justice seeking immunity from arrest. The court rejected the prayer and said Ghosh could be charged with contempt of court for moving such a petition, lawyers said.
Ghosh, against whom numerous charges of corruption have been raised by a section of members of the Indian Medical Association’s West Bengal chapter, was picked up by CBI officials while he was travelling in his car in the Salt Lake area after the court rejected his prayer.
Ghosh said on August 12 that he had resigned from service, but hours later he was posted as principal of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH).
On August 13, the court-monitored CBI probe was ordered with immediate effect by the bench of chief justice TS Sivagnanam and justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya Barley a day after Mamata Banerjee, who is also in charge of the home and health departments, asked the Kolkata Police to complete its investigation by August 18, failing which, she said, the case would be handed over to CBI, a demand raised by the victim’s parents and opposition parties.
Banerjee did not rule out the involvement of “insiders” in the crime even though Sanjay Roy (31), a civic volunteer working for the Kolkata Police, was arrested as the prime suspect on August 10.
The CBI probe was ordered after hearing on a writ petition filed by the victim’s parents. As many as five more petitions were also filed by some senior lawyers and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
The role of Dr Ghosh came under scrutiny during the court hearing on August 13.
“Several submissions were made at the bar with regard to how highly influential Professor Sandip Kumar Ghosh is; however, these aspects are not gone into at this stage. We have advised the learned advocate appearing for Professor Sandip Kumar Ghosh to direct his client to immediately proceed on leave, failing which the Court will be compelled to pass necessary orders,” the bench said in its order, a copy of which was seen by HT.