A team of CBI officers examined Calcutta’s deputy mayor and Trinamool Congress MLA Atin Ghosh on Friday in connection with alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The agency’s team entered Ghosh’s north Calcutta residence around 2.15pm and left around 5pm. After they left, Ghosh told reporters he had been served a notice to appear as a witness in the case, given his position as a member of the hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti (patient welfare committee).

“As a law-abiding citizen, I have cooperated with the agency. They had a few queries related to the working of the Samiti. I tried to respond,” Ghosh said outside his Hatibagan home. “I also told them clearly that my role was limited to attending some of the Samiti’s meetings.”

Ghosh said he had received a call from the CBI on Wednesday but requested a formal notice because “frauds are very common”. He added: “They then sent me a notice under Section 179 of the BNSS, which empowers police to examine individuals as a witness. I have abided by that.”

The Rogi Kalyan Samiti oversees patient welfare activities and manages hospital affairs. Ghosh was a member of the Samiti at RG Kar at the time the alleged financial irregularities occurred.

Earlier this week, the CBI questioned another Trinamool MLA, Sudipta Roy, at his Sinthee residence in connection with the same case. Roy, too, was a member of the Samiti at RG Kar.

Reacting to the developments, Bengal Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay said the CBI action appeared to be a “conspiracy” ahead of elections. “This is a conspiracy using the agency before the elections. I don’t know why they went to Atin’s home. They have every right to investigate, and no one denies that. But they can’t scare us like this either,” he said.

Corruption allegations had emerged against former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, who was an office-bearer of the Samiti. The CBI’s anti-corruption branch had arrested Sandip Ghosh in September last year, in connection with the case. His co-accused, Asish Pandey, was arrested in October. Both have been charged with forgery, criminal conspiracy, and breach of trust, and under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, an officer said.

Others named in the chargesheet include Afsar Ali Khan, Sandip Ghosh’s guard during his tenure as principal, and two vendors — Sumon Hazra and Biplav Singha. The trial in the case has begun.

The allegations against Sandip Ghosh primarily involve inflated billing, granting favours to select vendors to operate cafeterias and canteens on the compound, and sale of unclaimed bodies and biomedical waste from the hospital.

The charges emerged following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee at RG Kar on August 9, 2024. The public outrage that followed the crime had brought attention to the corruption allegations against Sandip Ghosh and his associates.

Sandip Ghosh was arrested in connection with the rape and murder case as well, but was granted bail after the CBI failed to submit a chargesheet within 90 days of his arrest.

The financial irregularities probe began after a complaint was lodged by Akhtar Ali, a former deputy superintendent of RG Kar. Following the complaint, the CBI took up the case.