THE CENTRAL Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday registered a case of alleged financial irregularities at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College where a trainee doctor was found dead on August 9, officials said.
The agency took over the investigation from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the West Bengal government on the directions of Calcutta High Court.
The High Court which had already handed over the probe into the rape and murder of the medico also transferred the probe of financial irregularities to the CBI “in the interest of ensuring a comprehensive and unbiased inquiry”. “…this Court directs that the investigation be transferred to the CBI, given that the case involved serious allegations and multiple agencies handling different aspects of the case could lead to inefficiencies or inconsistency for comprehensive justice, unnecessary delays in the judicial process and potential misinterpretation of information thereby undermining effective and credible enforcement. Therefore, the investigation should not be fragmented between different agencies. Handing over the investigation to the CBI ensures consistency,” Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj said.
The high court had directed the CBI to submit a progress report on the investigation within three weeks. The court had earlier told the state police to hand over the case diary and necessary paperwork by Saturday at 10 am.
The central probe agency collected all the documents from the police and re-registered the FIR. According to the procedure, the CBI takes over the investigation from state police and re-registers its FIR as its own, keeping the details unchanged. The central agency gives its findings in the final report and submits it before a special court.
The High Court had given the directives for a CBI probe on the plea of former Deputy Superintendent of the hospital Akhtar Ali who had alleged financial irregularities in the hospital during the tenure of its former principal Sandip Ghosh and sought a probe by the central agencies. Ali had already filed a complaint with the state police in July 2023.
On Saturday, CBI also seized a two-wheeler owned by the arrested accused, Sanjay Roy. The CBI also commenced the process of conducting polygraph examinations of the key suspects in the case.
A team of polygraph experts from Delhi’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) has arrived in Kolkata. Among those undergoing the lie detection tests are former principal (of RG Kar) Sandip Ghosh and four on-duty doctors from the night of the incident.
The CBI hopes to corroborate their previous statements with the polygraph tests.
On Saturday, polygraph test was conducted on Ghosh while the agency will conduct a test on Roy Sunday.
Sandip Ghosh reached the CGO complex on Saturday morning for the ninth consecutive day. Earlier, the central agency had applied to the Sealdah court seeking permission for his polygraph test.
The permission was granted on Friday and Roy also consented to the test. He was sent to jail on Friday.
A delegation of resident doctors had met the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Friday regarding the alleged sexual assault and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal’s Kolkata. The delegation expressed dissatisfaction with the responses provided by the investigative agency.
“Our delegation of five people who went to meet the CBI at CGO Complex yesterday, did not get any satisfactory answer even from there. Our only demand is justice. We told the CBI that the motive behind our ongoing protest is justice, which is in your hands,” one of the representatives of the delegation said.
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