The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers raided the residence of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh Friday afternoon and questioned him for nearly two and a half hours over the alleged financial irregularities at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, that the agency is probing alongside the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor within the institution premises last year, officials said.

Ghosh was a member of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti (patient welfare committee) at the hospital.

According to reports, three vehicles of CBI officers and central armed forces personnel arrived at the residence of the Kashipur-Belgachhia MLA in North Kolkata shortly after 2 pm and he was reportedly present at his residence at the time.

The TMC MLA said he answered all queries put before him by the CBI officers. His statements were recorded by the investigating agency.

“It is my duty as a citizen to cooperate,” he said, adding, “I was sent a notice on Wednesday under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code. Being a local MLA, I was a member of the Patient Welfare Committee of RG Kar Hospital. There were some questions about that. I answered them. They took notes and left.”

“The CBI had called me and informed me about their intentions to question me in connection with the case. At first, I disbelieved them because of such fraudulent calls one gets from scammers these days. I have no regrets that the agency visited my house,” Ghosh said.
“The CBI told me that 500 people have been questioned in this incident. I have also been questioned.”

“My role in the Patient Welfare Association was limited. There were three to four meetings a year. My job was to attend them. The meetings of the association started in 2022. There have been about 12 meetings till 2024. I have attended 8-10 of them.”

“I had no role other than attending three or four meetings as a member of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti and that is what I have told CBI,” the TMC MLA said in connection with the agency’s questions.

The officers left the premises at around 5 pm.

Atin added that the People’s Representative Committee had other members, but he is unsure if they will be questioned or not.

“Everyone knows what my political character is. I have been handling the health department of the Kolkata Municipality for 15 years. No one has been able to point a finger at me,” he said.

Reacting to the development, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said later in the day, “As elections approach, the more they (an apparent reference to the BJP) trust the ED and CBI. We trust the people. Earlier, the CBI was searching my house all day long. Today, it happened at (Deputy Mayor) Atin’s house. The central agency is being misused.”

BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar said, “As member of Rogi Kalyan Samiti, the TMC leaders eat all the fruits now let them also face consequences of this.”

Meanwhile, reacting to the CBI raid at Ghosh’s residence, the deceased doctor’s father said, “We have been hearing his name for quite sometime now . Finally CBI has acted. Some more named had cropped up lets see how investigation unfolds.”

The CBI previously arrested five accused, including the college’s former principal Sandip Ghosh, in connection with the case, all of whom are currently in jail. The arrests were made following the gruesome rape and murder of the junior doctor on August 9 last year and a subsequent complaint of multi-crore corruption and a ‘syndicate raj’ prevalent at the institution, allegedly at the behest of the hospital’s Patient Welfare Committee.

A week ago, the CBI conducted search operations at the north Kolkata residence of another TMC MLA and doctor Sudipto Roy in Sinthi for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities case.

Roy, a legislator from Sreerampur, was the chairperson of the Patient Welfare Committee at RG Kar hospital at the time of the crime and is also the president of the West Bengal Medical Council.

— WITH PTI Inputs