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regular-article-logo Saturday, 07 December 2024

CBI officers visit RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for graft investigation

This was the first time a team from the central agency visited the medical college, where a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered on August 9, since the arrest of former principal Sandip Ghosh on charges of financial irregularities

Kinsuk Basu Calcutta Published 06.09.24, 11:04 AM
Representational image

Representational image File image

A team of CBI officers visited RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Thursday and spoke to officials about tenders for repair and renovation of buildings, canteens and pay-and-use toilets, as part of the investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the state-run facility.

This was the first time a team from the central agency visited the medical college, where a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered on August 9, since the arrest of former principal Sandip Ghosh on charges of financial irregularities.

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The team members visited various departments of the medical college, took pictures and recorded videos, and spoke to several officials.

On September 2, the CBI arrested Ghosh and three others — Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Singha — for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities at the hospital.

Sources said the team wanted to verify the information that surfaced during Ghosh’s interrogation on financial transactions. The transactions, sources said, were made under several heads, including recycling of bio-medical waste.

“We are trying to find out the procedures followed before and after tenders were floated for civil work and other projects at the medical college during Ghosh’s tenure as principal,” said a senior officer.

The CBI wants to know on what basis a vendor was selected for a particular work, the amount of earnest money that had to be deposited and the source of funds.

On Tuesday, the CBI said Ghosh and the other three were part of a “great nexus” involved in “illegal financial transactions” .

CBI lawyer Ram Babu Kanojia told the special CBI court in Alipore, when the four accused were produced on Tuesday, that the nexus was involved in granting favours for money at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The CBI is also probing the role of Afsar Ali, who was an “additional security guard” in the RG Kar principal’s office during Ghosh’s tenure, in selling bio-medical waste such as used syringes, gloves and saline bottles.

The agency has gathered the names of some of the alleged buyers of the waste, sources said.

Ali allegedly cashed in on his proximity with Ghosh and bagged a contract to run a cafeteria at the hospital.

Whether rules laid down by the state health department for floating tenders and awarding contracts were followed is under scrutiny, the sources said.

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