RG Kar Hospital ex-principal Sandip Ghosh arrested by CBI Anti Corruption Branch over ’financial misconduct’

Kolkata doctor rape case: The former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) anti-corruption branch, on Monday. Ghosh was arrested in connection with the alleged ‘financial misconduct’ at the RG Kar hospital, officials said.

Sandip Ghosh was questioned for 15 days straight at the CBI's Salt Lake office over the alleged rape and murder of the RG Kar hospital post-graduate trainee on August 9. He was also subjected to polygraph tests.

Sandip Ghosh was taken to the CBI Anti-Corruption Branch in Nizam Palace from the CBI special crime branch office in the Salt Lake CGO Complex in Kolkata.

Apart from the Kolkata doctor rape case, Sandip Ghosh was also being investigated for alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar hospital. As soon as the news broke of Sandip Ghosh's arrest, junior doctors who had been protesting over the Kolkata doctor rape case started celebrations.

RG Kar Hospital's former deputy superintendent, Dr Akhtar Ali, lodged multiple complaints of financial irregularities at the establishment during Ghosh's tenure as principal.

Sandip Ghosh had earlier resigned as the principal of RG Kar hospital. However, he was reinstated as the principal of the National Medical College and Hospital, another Bengal government-run hospital.

Sandip Ghosh was asked to go on leave by the West Bengal government after the rape and murder of the woman trainee doctor at the RG Kar Hospital came to light.

Notably, Sandip Ghosh is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over his role in the Kolkata doctor rape and murder case as well as money laundering charges.

Earlier, the Supreme Court, which took suo moto cognisance of the Kolkata doctor rape case, had rapped Sandip Ghosh for passing off the crime as ‘suicide’.

RG Kar financial irregularities: Key witness in ICU

Earlier reports indicated that Debasish Som, a demonstrator in the Forensic Medicine Department at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata and a crucial witness in the financial irregularities case involving the same institution, was admitted in critical condition to a private hospital in Kolkata on Sunday.

Debashish Som is a key eyewitness in the case, as there have been allegations that under Ghosh’s leadership, organs from unidentified bodies sent to the hospital for post-mortem were frequently sold on the black market at a high price.