Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Amidst continuous protests by the junior doctors who are now demanding resignation of the Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal besides justice for the victim of the RG Kar Medical College and Hostel rape and murder, the arrested former principal Sandip Ghosh on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order transferring the alleged corruption case against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On August 23, the Calcutta High Court ordered the transfer of the probe into the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar hospital during his tenure as the principal from a state-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the CBI. The High Court had stated that since the CBI was already into probing the rape and murder case of the trainee postgraduate doctor in the hospital premises on August 9, the complaints of financial irregularities in the hospital should also be conducted by the same agency as it might have some bearings with the horrific crime.
The CBI had arrested Ghosh along with three others in connection with the alleged financial irregularities at the government hospital whose administration is facing intense scrutiny after the alleged rape and murder of the trainee doctor there last month.
Ghosh served as principal of RG Kar Medical College from February 2021 to September 2023. He was transferred from RG Kar in October that year but inexplicably returned to that position within a month. He held his position at the hospital till the day the hospital doctor was found dead. The officials said that the three others arrested along with Ghosh are Afsar Ali (44) – his security guard – and hospital vendors Biplav Singha (52) and Suman Hazara (46).
The doctor said the ‘principles of natural justice’ were not applied in his case. He also sought the expunging of ‘certain remarks’. The hearing has been set for Friday.
The direction from the Calcutta HC came in response to a petition by former deputy superintendent of the facility, Dr Akhtar Ali. Ali had urged the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to launch probes into multiple counts of alleged financial misconduct at the state-run institute during Ghosh’s tenure. Ali claimed in his petition to the court that he had lodged complaints before the state vigilance commission and anti-corruption bureau filed over a year ago against Ghosh but instead of a redressal, it led to his own transfer from RG Kar.
Ali moved the High Court amid speculations on whether the alleged rampant corruption at the institution was in any way connected to the RG Kar medic’s death, with the victim being privy to these misconduct and threatening exposure. Ali in his petition alleged that Ghosh illegally sold unclaimed corpses, trafficked biomedical waste and passed tenders against commission paid by medicine and medical equipment suppliers. He alleged that students were pressured to pay amounts ranging between Rs.5 and 8 lakhs to pass exams.
With the ruling Trinamool Congress put in some uncomfortable position owing to unsolicited remarks by some of its leaders amidst continuous protests by the junior doctors and acrimonious support generated among a section of the general public over the rape and murder of the medic, the All India Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, MP, has appealed to his party’s public representatives and activists to refrain from making any harsh comments against doctors and prominent people of civil society
Taking to ‘X’, Abhishek Banerjee wrote, “Public representatives across party lines need to be more HUMBLE and SYMPATHETIC. I urge everyone in @AITCofficial not to speak ill of anyone from the MEDICAL FRATERNITY OR CIVIL SOCIETY. Everyone has the right to protest and express themselves— This is what sets West Bengal apart from other BJP-ruled states.”
“We have wholeheartedly fought against the BULLDOZER MODEL AND OPPRESSION TACTICS of politics. Now is the time for constructive actions to ensure such horrific incidents are not repeated. Bengal must stand united in this fight and not stop until the perpetrators are punished and an ANTI-RAPE Time Bound law is enacted by both the states and Union government,” Banerjee added, in an apparent dig at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
Abhishek Banerjee had not initially commented on the RG rape and murder case. Following this, he strongly condemned the incident during the meeting of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad at Kolkata’s Mayo Road on August 28. Banerjee even claimed that he will raise the demand for a strict anti-rape legislation in the Parliament. He has also extended his support to the movement launched in demand for justice in the RG Kar rape and murder case.
The TMC which has been facing the heat over its alleged poor handling of the RG Kar case has been in an uncomfortable position lately as few party leaders have made contentious statements against the protesting doctors. “I will enter your homes, take perverse photographs of your mothers and sister, and hang them on your walls,” TMC leader Atish Sarkar was quoted as saying by BJP’s national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari. Sarkar has been suspended by the ruling party following his remarks.
Earlier, TMC MP Arup Chakraborty had made a contentious statement against the protesting doctors. “In the name of the movement, you may go home or go about with your boyfriend. If a patient dies because of your strike and public anger falls on you, we will not save you,” Chakraborty was quoted as saying by BJP’s Shehzad Poonawala.
The junior doctors, meanwhile, staged a sit-in at Kolkata’s BB Ganguly Street near Lalbazar, the Kolkata police headquarters, keeping a night long vigil demanding Mr Goyal’s resignation. The police had earlier barricaded the procession of junior doctors near Lalbazar on Monday afternoon. Following this, the protesters held a sit-in on the road. They demanded that Vineet Goyal should either come and talk to them or resign from his post. The police responded to this suggesting that a delegation of junior doctors may come and meet the Kolkata Police Commissioner to present their demands. Junking this proposal, junior doctors held a sit-in since afternoon.