CBI conducts searches in Kolkata over ‘financial irregularities’ in RG Kar hospital

CBI sleuths on Sunday conducted searches on the premises of former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh, ex-medical superintendent Sanjay Vashisth and 13 others in and around Kolkata in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the institute, officials said.

The anti-corruption unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also searched the residences and offices of those engaged in supplying materials for the management and care of patients.

In its FIR registered on the directions of the Calcutta High Court, the CBI has booked Ghosh and three Kolkata-based private entities Ma Tara Traders of Madhya Jhorehat, Banipur, Howrah; Eshan CafA of 4/1, Belgachia and Khama Louha.

The agency has filed the FIR against Ghosh and the private entities under Indian Penal Code sections of 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

At least seven CBI officers questioned Ghosh at his Beliaghata residence from 8 am, while others grilled Vashisth, the former medical superintendent and vice principal of the hospital, and another professor of the forensic-medicine department of the medical establishment, among others, they said.

Accompanied by a huge team of central forces, the CBI team reached Ghosh's residence around 6 am but was made to wait for nearly one-and-half hours before he opened the doors, the officials said.

The other officers of the central agency went to the residence of a supplier in Howrah, they added.

"Vashisth is being questioned on how much he knew about the financial irregularities that happened in the hospital when he was the MSVP," an official said.

Another team of CBI officers also conducted searches at the ex-principal's office in the hospital and also went to the canteen in the academic building.

They asked present principal Manas Kumar Bandyopadhyay to reach the hospital in the morning and accompany them during their searches in the medical establishment.

A postgraduate trainee woman doctor was allegedly raped and murdered in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9, following which a Kolkata Police civic volunteer was arrested.

The gruesome crime resulted in nationwide protests by doctors and citizens.

On the direction of the Calcutta High Court, the CBI registered cases into the killing as well as alleged financial irregularities.