CBI makes 3 more arrests after taking ex-R.G. Kar principal into custody

Besides Sandip Ghosh, the controversial former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday, 2 September, arrested three other persons in connection with its investigation into alleged financial irregularities at the hospital where a junior doctor was found raped and murdered on 9 August when Ghosh was in charge of its affairs.

Sources said the three persons arrested by the CBI are Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra, and Biplab Sinha.

While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors who supplied medical equipment to R.G. Kar when Ghosh was at the helm of its affairs.

Sources said the CBI has got definite clues of these three persons being partners in crime with Ghosh in the alleged financial irregularities at the hospital.

Sinha and Hazra had been beneficiaries of the financial irregularities, the sources said.

The main allegation against Ghosh is related to tendering of different contracts to private and outsourced parties known to him after getting the necessary approval from the state Health Department and the college council.

There are also charges against Ghosh of getting infrastructure-related tasks at the hospital done by private entities or individuals instead of following the standard practice of getting them done by the state Public Works Department (PWD).

Another serious charge, the sources said, is selling biomedical wastes of the hospital outside which is illegal.

There are also allegations against Ghosh of using the hospital to earn money through businesses run in the name of others, which is a serious offence on the part of a government official.

The most severe charge in the matter is selling organs of unidentified bodies coming to the hospital mortuary for post-mortem at lucrative rates.

After 16 days of questioning, CBI arrested Ghosh on Monday evening.

On Monday morning, Ghosh appeared for interrogation at the CBI office in the CGO complex in Salt Lake, which houses the agency’s special crime unit that is conducting the probe into the rape and murder case.

After being questioned there through the day, Ghosh was taken to CBI's Nizam Palace office which houses the agency's economic offences wing that is conducting the parallel probe into the allegations of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar.