Kolkata Police starts probe on former principal of RG Kar Hospital Sandip Ghosh for financial irregularities

Ghosh may also be asked to explain why he revealed the identity of the deceased doctor while briefing journalists after her body was found at the hospital.

Kolkata: Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation has already been questioning him, the Kolkata Police too on Tuesday initiated a probe on Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of the city’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, where a young doctor was recently raped and murdered.

Ghosh came under the scanner of the Kolkata Police after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government constituted a Special Investigation Team, comprising four top cops, to probe the alleged financial irregularities at the RGKMCH, which was at the centre of the public outrage over the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor. He was asked to appear before the investigators at the police headquarters on Wednesday.

Sources said that he was summoned in view of the allegations about his involvement in financial irregularities during his stint as the principal of the RGKMCH.

He may also be asked to explain why he revealed the identity of the deceased doctors while briefing journalists after her body was found at the Seminar Hall of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the RGKMCH on August 9.

Ghosh had resigned as the principal of the RGKMCH amid allegations by the protesting junior doctors about the role of the hospital authorities in a cover-up attempt after the young doctor was found raped and murdered. He was appointed as the principal of another state-run medical college a few hours after he resigned. The Calcutta High Court, however, on August 13 asked him to go on a long leave.

The Supreme Court also rapped him for trying to pass off the rape and murder as a case of suicide.

After the body of the 31-year-old was found, Ghosh had got an assistant superintendent of the RGKMCH to call her parents and inform them that their daughter had died by suicide.

Amit Malviya, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, however, criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government for constituting the SIT and initiating the probe against the former principal of the RGKMCH. He said that the state government wanted to get Ghosh in the custody of Kolkata Police before he could be arrested by the CBI.

The CBI has been questioning him for long hours every day since Friday.