Graft charge framing against Sandip Ghosh and others to start on Wednesday
Telegraph | 5 February 2025
The framing of charges against former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh and others accused of corruption is likely to start on Wednesday.
Ghosh’s lawyer submitted a “discharge application” before the special CBI court on Tuesday seeking discharge from the case. The court however said the hearing of the application would be done simultaneously with the proceedings for framing charges.
Ghosh had earlier moved the court of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of Calcutta High Court seeking time before the charges were framed against him. Justice Ghosh had turned down the plea saying there was a “systematic delay” in the case.
“There has been a systematic delay in the RG Kar case. I’m not going into who is doing it and why. However, after the chargesheet was submitted in November, there has been a delay in hearing the case,” Justice Ghosh said.
Ghosh’s lawyer and the defence lawyers of the other accused in the case moved a discharge application on Tuesday.
A discharge application is a prayer by an accused person who has been chargesheeted to get discharged in the case citing a mismatch of charges pressed by the investigating agency.
The court has the liberty to accept or reject such a petition. In case of rejection, the court would proceed to frame charges based on which the trial would commence.
The CBI’s anti-corruption branch had arrested Ghosh on September 2 last year in the financial irregularity case. His co-accused, Asish Pandey, was arrested in October on similar charges. The CBI filed a chargesheet against Ghosh and Pandey on November 29 but the court could not take cognisance of it as the state government’s concurrence was awaited.
The agency has charged Ghosh and Pandey with “forgery, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust”, a CBI officer said. “The two have also been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.”
Apart from Ghosh and Pandey, those named in the chargesheet are Afsar Ali Khan, who was Ghosh’s guard when he was RG Kar principal, and two vendors — Sumon Hazra and Biplav Singha.
The CBI said they received the state’s concurrence last month, after which the court would proceed with the framing of charges in this case.
Ghosh is also accused in the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at the college but is yet to be chargesheeted by the CBI in the case.