Charges against former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh are likely to be framed on Thursday in a city court for alleged corruption after his fresh attempt to delay the process seeking time from Calcutta High Court failed on Wednesday.
The special CBI court in Alipore, which is hearing the RG Kar corruption case, fixed Thursday for framing charges against Ghosh and four others accused in the case.
All five moved Calcutta High Court on Wednesday seeking a stay on the order and sought more time to go through the “voluminous” chargesheet that the CBI had filed against them.
Earlier, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh had turned down Ghosh’s appeal for time.
On Wednesday, the former principal and the others moved the bench of the chief justice of Calcutta High Court seeking reconsideration of the earlier order by Justice Ghosh.
On the intervention of the chief justice, the matter came up for hearing again in the court of Justice Ghosh on Wednesday.
Justice Ghosh, however, again turned down the prayer of the former principal and the others seeking more time before the charges were framed against them.
While rejecting the plea, Justice Ghosh said: “The order passed by the Alipore court is a judicial order and the high court has no jurisdiction to intervene in a judicial order under Article 228 (of the Indian Constitution).”
The judge said the petitioners were free to move a division bench challenging his order.
At this, the petitioners prayed for a stay order on Thursday’s proceedings at the Alipore court. But the judge said he had no such jurisdiction. “State your problem before the concerned judge,” Justice Ghosh said.
The major allegations against ex-principal Ghosh are allotment of contracts to ineligible vendors for stalls, cafeterias and canteens on the hospital compound, engaging third-party contractors for civil and engineering works without involving the public works department, illegal sale of “used hazardous biomedical waste”, unauthorised collection of parking fees, unlawful recruitment of contractual employees, taking cuts from the vendors given contracts without valid credentials and misuse of Covid funds to furnish a gym and Ghosh’s office.
Apart from Ghosh, the other accused in the case are Ashish Pandey, a former RG Kar house staff and Trinamool youth leader; Afsar Ali, who was Ghosh’s guard when he was RG Kar principal; and two contractors, Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra.
Advocate Ayan Bhattacharya appeared for Ghosh and the others and additional solicitor general Ashok Chakrabarty represented the CBI.
Bhattacharya said the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) has provided them 60 days to file an appeal. “We wanted only a two-week stay,” he said.
Sources close to Ghosh said he was likely to move a division bench of Calcutta High Court opposing the single bench’s order before the process of framing charges starts in the Alipore court on Thursday.
The CBI has charged the five accused, including Ghosh and Pandey, with “forgery, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust”, an officer said. “Ghosh and Pandey have also been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.”
According to the rule, once the framing of charges is complete, the trial would commence on the charges fixed by the court.
During charge framing, the court has the liberty to amend the charges pressed by the investigating agency after weighing them against the supporting evidence submitted.
In this case, the CBI has submitted a chargesheet running into several thousand pages, the lawyers said.