Kolkata rape-murder: RG Kar hospital ex-principal Sandip Ghosh, three others sent to judicial custody till Sept 23

Kolkata: Former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh was on Tuesday sent to judicial custody till September 23 by a special CBI court in a financial irregularities case.

The court also sent his security personnel Afsar Ali and two alleged associates – medical equipment vendor Biplab Singha and pharmacy shop owner Suman Hazara – to judicial custody till September 23.

Although the accused were previously remanded to CBI custody for eight days leaving the probe agency with the option to pray for another six days of maximum remand, the investigators made no such petition before the court.

“The CBI has already secured large amounts of digital evidence on the alleged crime. We need time to analyse that evidence. We do not need the accused in police custody immediately. But we may seek their custody again later, if required,” the agency counsel submitted in court.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the Alipore Court premises where Ghosh and others were produced, when lawyers, mostly women, demonstrated against the former RG Kar principal and tried to block the courtroom exit when he was being escorted out by security personnel.

Even the judge’s appeals to refrain from agitation fell on deaf ears.

The police summoned central paramilitary jawans to gain control over the situation.

While the protestors shouted 'chor chor' (thief, thief) at Ghosh, one person was seen hurling a slipper at the accused ex-principal and banging the prison van with it after the suspects were made to board the vehicle headed for the Presidency Correctional Home.

The lawyers alleged that “special treatment” was being offered to the accused by allowing them to use the courtroom exit used by the judges.

The agitating lawyers were heard raising ‘We want Justice’ slogans and chorused that the “blood of the victim won’t go in vain”. They even demanded that the accused “be hanged” for “abetting the gruesome rape and murder of the victim”.

Earlier, the court rejected the CBI’s application for a hearing on virtual mode and producing all four accused from the agency’s Nizam Palace office, where they were being held, in apprehension of violence at court premises.

The court directed that the accused will have to be produced before the judge in person and set a 3 pm deadline for it.

The agency’s anticipation of security concerns of the accused was based on the chaos at the court premises during Ghosh’s previous production on September 3 where he was slapped from behind by an agitator.

Rejecting the bail prayer of Ali and a separate plea to return of seized items from Sinha, the judge maintained that the probe was at an early stage and no leniency could be shown to any of the accused given the severity of the crime.

Ghosh and the others were arrested by the CBI on charges of financial irregularities on September 2 amid protests over the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at the RG Kar MCH on August 9.

The Calcutta High Court on August 23 ordered the transfer of the probe into the alleged financial irregularities at the hospital from a state-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the CBI.

The direction came in response to a petition by former deputy superintendent of the facility, Dr Akhtar Ali, who prayed for a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into multiple counts of alleged financial misconduct at the state-run institute during the tenure of Ghosh.

Ali accused Ghosh of forging work tenders for civil work and procurement of medicines and medical equipment, and trafficking of unclaimed dead bodies.

Ghosh has also been alleged to have provided irregular work orders to his arrested associates for running a hospital cafeteria and parking lot facilities.