Senior ED officials said that during searches, they uncovered evidence of Ghosh allegedly owning a farmhouse. Officials said they are probing an alleged “criminal nexus” between Ghosh and certain “unscrupulous contractors”. The possibility of bribes being paid for the award of contracts is under investigation, officials said.
It is learnt that one of the contractors whose premises was searched on Friday has been arrested by the CBI. The pattern of several contractors getting assigned jobs for which they were unlicensed and thus ineligible was uncovered during a departmental inquiry by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, it is learnt. Earlier, the ED had recorded the statement of Akthar Ali, former Deputy Superintendent of R G Kar Hospital, in their Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) case, following which the names of some “favored” contractors came to light, sources said.
The ED is also understood to have obtained bank statements of several accounts linked to Ghosh and other hospital managers, which are under scrutiny.
The ED team arrived at Ghosh’s Beleghata residence at around 6.30 am on Friday but could not enter as the door was locked from outside. The officials went back and returned later, entering his house at 9.15 am.
Ghosh is already under arrest in an alleged corruption case filed by the CBI. Following his arrest, Ghosh was suspended by the state health department.
On Friday, ED officials accompanied by personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces also conducted searches at the houses of three other people — Biplab Singha, Prasoon Chattopadhyay and Kaushik Koley.
Singha is associated with a medical equipment supply business and is a hospital vendor. Earlier this week, he was arrested alongside Ghosh, and on Friday, his house in Howrah was among the locations where the ED conducted searches.
Chattopadhyay works as a data entry operator at the National Medical College and is known as Ghosh’s close aide. The ED conducted searches at his house in Subhasgram as well as at Koley’s residence in Howrah.
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