CBI grills ex-principal Sandip Ghosh at CGO complex
The Statesman | 17 August 2024
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College Hospital, grilled prof (Dr) Sandip Ghosh, an orthopaedic surgeon and former principal of the teaching hospital, on Friday at CGO complex to verify his alleged involvement in the horrific incident.
Prof Ghosh was taken to the CBI office at Salt Lake by a car of the central investigating agency this afternoon for interrogation. As he was worried about his security while going to appear before the CGO complex, the CBI picked him in its car to reach its office.
CBI investigators interrogated him at the CGO complex till this evening. The investigators also wanted to know whether he had ordered to demolish the washroom close to the seminar hall in the chest medicine department in the name of renovation work to tamper evidences in connection with the incident. A day before the CBI visited the seminar hall on Wednesday, the washroom’s wall was demolished by PWD unit of the R G Kar hospital.
He resigned as principal of the R G Kar Medical College Hospital under the pressure of the agitating junior doctors, interns and medical students associated with government medical colleges and hospitals across the state. They ceased work at R G Kar Medical College Hospital, epicentre of trouble, after the rape and murder of the PGT, and other government hospitals to protest against the incident demanding their own safety and security.
The Calcutta High Court had ordered a court-monitored CBI probe into the rape and murder case on Tuesday and criticised Prof Ghosh and the state administration.
The high court had raised questions on the conduct of the authorities of the R G Kar Medical College Hospital.
“One more aspect, which is also quite disturbing is that a case of unnatural death has been registered with the Tala police station in case No. 161 of 2024 dated August 9, 2024. It is submitted that under normal circumstances, a case of unnatural death is registered when there is no complaint. When the deceased victim was a doctor working in the hospital, it is rather surprising as to why the principal/hospital did not lodge a formal complaint. This, in our view, was a serious lapse, giving room for suspicion,” the court said in its order.
Criticising Prof Ghosh’s appointment as the new principal of the Calcutta National Medical College Hospital (CNMCH) hours after his resignation from the same post at R G Kar Medical College Hospital the court had asked him to go on leave.
Prof Ghosh had been summoned several times for questioning by the central probe agency, but he had been evading them. Last night a notice was served to him, which he avoided again and knocked on the doors of the high court seeking protection through his legal counsel, claiming that his life was under threat.
The former superintendent of the hospital Dr Sanjiv Vashishth and the head of chest department Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury have also been summoned for questioning on Friday.