Pulling up the CBI for not informing the trial court about the West Bengal government giving sanction to prosecute Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and another doctor in a corruption case, special court judge Sujit Kumar Jha on Thursday ordered the central agency to submit in writing the reason why it failed to do so.

Issuing the show-cause notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the financial irregularities in the state-run hospital in the wake of the rape and murder of a junior doctor, the judge expressed dissatisfaction, saying three days had passed since the state government’s nod but the CBI did not inform the court. CBI Investigating Officer Manish Upadhyay told the court that the agency had received the required sanction from the state government on January 27, “but they were busy with the investigation and therefore were unable to inform the court”.

The court further observed that the CBI informed the Calcutta High Court about the sanction bypassing the lower court.

With the CBI submitting the chargesheet against Ghosh and others in the case, the court directed the probe agency to produce all documents related to the case on the next hearing date. The judge ordered the CBI to bring all evidence, including electronic evidence, to the court and hand over copies of the documents to all the accused so that the charges could be framed and the trial could begin soon.

The court’s direction came after the lawyers of the accused alleged that they had not received all the documents from the CBI.

On November 29 last year, the CBI had submitted a 100-page chargesheet against Ghosh, and approval was required under section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) for the trial to start. The CBI has arrested former principal Sandip Ghosh, doctor and TMC youth leader Ashish Pandey and three others — Biplab Singh, Afsar Ali, and Suman Hazra – in connection with the alleged financial irregularities at the Kolkata hospital.