RG Kar: CBI Gets Clues of Ghosh’s Hand in MBBS Selection Irregularities

KOLKATA:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials probing the financial irregularities in the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, have got clues about the involvement of former principal Sandip Ghosh in wrongdoings in the MBBS selection process.

Sources said that CBI officials have also mentioned the findings in their reports filed at the Calcutta High Court last month, immediately before the court went for vacation on the occasion of Durga Puja.

As per the findings of the CBI officials, the irregularities in the MBBS selection process where Ghosh played an important role, took place in 2021.

The wrongdoings were first highlighted by a whistleblower and the former Deputy Superintendent of R.G. Kar, Akhtar Ali, based on whose petition a single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court directed the CBI to probe the financial aspect of the case.

Sources said that the CBI officials, along with their report, have also submitted to the Calcutta High Court some relevant supporting evidence on these MBBS selections in 2021.

The documents include call records and some voice messages that indicate Ghosh’s involvement in the wrongdoings, sources added.

Similar irregularities in house staff selection, sources added, have been tracked by the investigating officials.

One of the classic examples of wrongdoings in house staff selection was Ghosh’s close confidant Ashish Pandey, who has already been arrested by CBI officials in the financial irregularities case and is currently in judicial custody.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), too, has made a suo motu entry in investigating the financial irregularities case after filing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).

The other main charges in the financial irregularities case include misappropriations in the tendering process, getting infrastructure-related work at R.G. Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state Public Works Department, smuggling of biomedical wastes of the hospital and selling of organs of unidentified bodies coming to the hospital morgue.

Besides the financial irregularities case, the CBI is also conducting a parallel probe against Ghosh in the case related to the rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar within the hospital premises in August this year.