"We welcome the arrest of Dr Sandip Ghosh, but we will continue our protests till the time there's justice for our colleague who was brutally assaulted and murdered last month. Ghosh has only been arrested in connection with the case involving financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The charges related to the rape and murder case were not attached at all," Pratyush Bhattacharya, a fourth-year MBBS student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, told The Quint.
"Our demand is that the main perpetrators of the horrific crime are found, and capital punishment be given to them."Pratyush Bhattacharya
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday, 2 September arrested Ghosh, the controversial former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities at the establishment.
His arrest came on the 15th day of questioning by the probe agency, which is investigating two cases – the alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee at the hospital and the alleged financial misconduct at the institution.
Three more people were arrested along with him, but Ghosh's arrest is only the second arrest in the case, 24 days after the crime was committed. Earlier, Sanjay Roy, a Kolkata Police civic volunteer, was arrested by Kolkata Police, and handed over to the CBI in connection with the trainee doctor’s alleged rape and murder.
Gross Misappropriation of Funds, Nepotism: Allegations Against Ghosh
Ghosh, who is said to have close ties with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), and wielded enormous influence at RG Kar Hospital, came under the scanner after the Calcutta High Court observed that he should have been the first person to be questioned in the alleged rape and murder case. Earlier, on 12 August, within hours of his resignation from RG Kar Hospital, he was transferred to the city’s National Medical College to serve as principal by the West Bengal government.
In a detailed profile, The Quint had spoken to a slew of his former colleagues and doctors who accused him of gross misappropriation of funds as well as trafficking biomedical waste. Read the full story here.
Ghosh had allegedly 'distributed' places like cafeteria, food stalls, canteens to individuals without floating tenders. Allegations of nepotism and favouritism in the tender allocation process had also been levelled against him.
The investigation against Ghosh, who was principal of RG Kar from 2021 till last month, in the financial irregularities case was initiated based on a plea by a former colleague, Dr Akhtar Ali, who is currently the Deputy Superintendent of Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital.
Speaking to The Quint, Dr Ali had said that Ghosh ran a mafia raj in the hospital. “Ghosh was involved in various types of corruption. Such was his clout that officials of the health department used to visit his house and make a list of doctors to be transferred," Akhtar alleged to The Quint.
The CBI has slapped Section 120B of Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 420 IPC (cheating and dishonesty) and Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (amended in 2018 and which covers unlawful acceptance of gratification by a public servant) against Ghosh, according to news agency PTI.
In the wake of his arrest, former TMC MP Shantanu Sen, who is also former chairman of the RG Kar Patient Welfare Association, told The Quint,
"I was aware of the corruption that was taking place in the hospital one and a half years ago. I also sent a letter to the health secretary and flagged all the irregularities, but no action was initiated. If action would have been initiated, we would not have had to face this situation now."
The West Bengal Health and Family Welfare Department did not respond to The Quint's queries. The article will be updated as and when they revert. Mohammad Tauseef Rahman, a spokesperson of the TMC, however, had denied accusations that the party was "shielding" Ghosh.
Who are the 3 Other Accused Arrested Along With Ghosh?
Apart from Ghosh, the CBI on Monday also arrested Afsar Ali Khan, Biplab Singh, and Suman Hazra in connection with the case.
While Khan was Ghosh's security officer at RG Kar Hospital, Singh and Hazra are vendors, whose company, according to a source in the hospital, "used to supply everything to the hospital from biscuits to water bottles to oxygen cylinders to beds."
"Hazra and Singh have several companies, and all the goods to the hospital were supplied by them. But apart from supplying things to the hospital, they also smuggled things out of the hospital."The source told The Quint
The CBI said that all the three arrested along with Ghosh are "accomplices of Sandip Ghosh".
A resident of Belgachia in north Kolkata, the source added, that Khan joined the hospital as additional security, but was never seen donning the outfit that is usually donned by other security personnel.
"He slowly became Ghosh's personal bodyguard, and as a result, his writ ran large over the place. His wife runs a cafeteria in front of the administrative building of RG Kar Hospital. Many have alleged that it was obtained illegally. His brother is alleged to be involved in illegal collection of parking fees for two-wheelers on the hospital campus," the source told The Quint.
Biplab Singh's company Maa Tara Traders (against whom the CBI has registered an FIR) used to supply medical equipment to the hospital. Singh is a resident of Sankrail in Howrah district of West Bengal.
Last week, the CBI had raided Singh's office and house in Sankrail. Local news outlets reported that Singh's father was a Group D staff in a medical college in Kolkata. Singh did some odd jobs like painting, writing numbers on tin plates or bed numbers in hospitals. It was while he was doing jobs like these that Singh slowly started his business of providing medical equipment, the reports added.
Suman Hazra is the owner of Hazra Medical Shop in Howrah, where the CBI carried out searches, too. The store allegedly sold recycled medicines from RG Kar Hospital, according to the probe agency's officials.
' We Want Resignation of Police Commissioner'
Even as the CBI arrested Ghosh, protesting doctors said that just his arrest is not enough.
Dr Anubhav Mondal, a junior doctor at RG Kar Hospital, told The Quint, "We also want Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal's resignation. He completely botched up the investigation by failing to protect the crime scene for days before the CBI took over. Cordoning of the crime scene was not done properly."
"Anyone and everyone could get access to the spot. And after the mob attack on 14 August, the forces deployed on ground were nowhere to be found. We were left all alone in front of an agitated and motivated mob who completely vandalised the bottom two floors of the emergency building. As police chief, he failed to handle the situation."Dr Anubhav Mondal
“If you say that it is a failure of assessment, yes, you can call it a failure of assessment… (that) 10,000 people will turn up here and they will vandalise the entire place. This entire protest was supposed to be organised peacefully. There was no such intelligence (of violence)... We had to spread ourselves thin. There were far too many women. (The issue of) women’s safety was there," Goyal had told the media on 17 August post the attack.
He added,
"We had deployed our resources throughout the city. That night there were spontaneous huge gatherings at a large number of places. We had made arrangements to maintain law and order for the safety and security of women."
On Monday, 2 September, junior doctors in Kolkata called for 'Lalbazar Abhiyan' to demand Goyal's resignation.
Goyal should have resigned, the doctors maintained, taking "moral responsibility" for the failure of his force to stop a mob from vandalising the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital post-midnight on 14 August. Their explanations are unconvincing, they maintained.
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