Calcutta High Court orders transfer of 'financial irregularities' probe to CBI

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered the transfer of the probe into the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital during the tenure of its former principal Sandip Ghosh from a state-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the CBI.

The central agency also got permission from another city court to conduct a polygraph test on Ghosh and five others in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee inside the hospital earlier this month.

Ghosh was removed from the post of the principal of the RG Kar hospital after the rape and murder that sparked nationwide outrage and cease work by junior doctors in the facility which is still continuing.

The high court’s decision to transfer the case to CBI came in response to a petition by a former deputy superintendent of the facility, Akhtar Ali, who sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged financial misconduct at the state-run institute during the tenure of Ghosh.

Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the CBI to submit a progress report on the investigation within three weeks. The court will hear the matter for September 17 to review the report and has ordered that the case diary and other documents be handed over to the CBI by 10 AM on Saturday.

Claiming urgency, Ghosh's lawyer moved a division bench presided by Justice Harish Tandon against the order of the single bench.

The division bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, however, refused to grant any urgent hearing of his prayer.

The CBI, meanwhile, also secured the leave of ACJM Sealdah to conduct a polygraph test on Ghosh and five others in connection with the alleged rape and murder of the RG Kar medic which the agency is already probing on a Calcutta High Court order.

Besides Ghosh, four doctors, including an intern, and a civic volunteer posted at RG Kar hospital would go under the lie detector test, an officer said.

The agency has also received the court’s nod to carry out the polygraph test on the arrested Kolkata Police civic volunteer, the prime accused in the case.

The accused was produced in court on Friday following the completion of his police custody and was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days, the officer said.

The agitating junior doctors at RG Kar hospital conveyed that they would continue with their stir and cease work that has now surpassed a fortnight and crippled public healthcare services in West Bengal.

“We are yet to see any tangible progress in the CBI’s investigation nor heard anything from the agency on how close it is to crack the case. We have, hence, decided to continue with our movement,” an RG Kar medic said.

CBI officers, meanwhile, told PTI that they are concentrating on how the crime was executed without any hindrance in the facility’s seminar hall where the door’s tower bolt was found broken.

The agency is also trying to figure out if someone was stationed outside the seminar hall to ensure that the crime went undisturbed, he said, adding that the investigators are analysing CCTV footage to confirm it.

BJP activists gheraoed police stations across West Bengal, raising slogans and blocking the entrances of the premises for hours to protest the crime at RG Kar hospital.

In Purba Medinipur district, over 500 BJP workers, many of them women, stormed into Nandigram police station, breaking through barricades and jostling with police and Rapid Action Force personnel demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her alleged failure in ensuring the safety of women health workers.

Protesters raised slogans inside the police station for some time, before exiting the premises.

Nandigram, which was the epicentre of TMC's anti-land acquisition movement of 2007-08, is the turf of Suvendu Adhikari, who jumped the ship from the state’s ruling party to the BJP in 2020 and won the assembly segment in 2021 polls by defeating Banerjee.

BJP supporters also gheraoed Chinsurah, Siuri, New Jalpaiguri, Bankura, Midnapore and Barabani police stations, among other places.

In north Bengal’s Cooch Behar, BJP activists tried to break the police cordon at Mathabhanga police station but were thwarted by the security forces.

The protests were organised as part of a statewide 'thana gherao' programme over the issue.

Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, who led the demonstration in Midnapore, said, "This government has lost all right to remain in office."

Adhikari had on Thursday said that the gherao agitations would be "democratic and non-violent", and would voice people's disenchantment with the ruling party in the state on the issue of women's safety.

A protest rally was held by Presidency University students and faculty members from the institution’s College Street campus to Shyambazar five-point crossing near RG Kar hospital. Techies from Kolkata’s IT hub also organised a demonstration in New Town in the eastern fringes of the city.