Kolkata: The CBI on Sunday conducted a marathon raid at the houses of two former key officials of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) and several others in connection with the financial misappropriation that the Calcutta high court had ordered for a probe at the state-run facility.
The two key figures are Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal, and Dr Sanjay Vashisth, former medical superintendent-cum-vice principal (MSVP) of RGKMCH. Both faced questioning by the anti-corruption branch officers of the CBI, according to sources.
At around 6.50 am, the investigators with the Central forces visited the palatial house of Dr Ghosh in Beliaghata in the northern part of the city. They, however, had to wait for over an hour for entry as Dr Ghosh was yet to wake up. Later, the CBI team was allowed to search the house. Dr Ghosh, who was present, was grilled.
The raid and search continued beyond the afternoon. Meanwhile, another CBI team turned up at the flat of Dr Vashisth at an upscale housing complex at Entally in central Kolkata. In the afternoon, they took him to another flat, owned by him, at Tala in north Kolkata for a raid and search.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the lie detector test on Sanjoy Roy, the main accused in the alleged rape-murder of a R.G. Kar Medical College trainee doctor, is underway at Kolkata’s Presidency Jail where he is lodged, officials said Sunday. Two more individuals will undergo the test at the CBI office in Kolkata during the day, they said.
The CBI had sought permission from the court to put seven individuals, including Roy and Dr Sandip Ghosh, through the lie detector test. The test, however, cannot be used as evidence during the trial but its findings give the agency leads for a further probe. A team of polygraph specialists flown to Kolkata from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in New Delhi is conducting the tests, they said.
Roy was arrested by the Kolkata police on August 10, a day after the body of the 31-year-old medic was found in the seminar hall of the medical college. CCTV footage and a Bluetooth device found near the medic’s body resulted in the arrest of Roy, who was working with the Kolkata police as a civic volunteer since 2019.
The accused, who is a trained boxer, allegedly got close to a few senior police officers over the years, after which he was moved to the Kolkata Police Welfare Board and posted at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. He has denied the allegations against him.
Among others who faced CBI raids on Sunday were Debasis Shome and Biplab Singha. Dr Shome is the demonstrator at the forensic medicine department of RGKMCH. He was also known to be close to Dr Ghosh. His house at Kestopur was searched by the CBI. Dr Shome was taken to the CBI office at Nizam’s Palace in south Kolkata for questioning.
On the other hand, Mr Singha is a medical equipment supplier. His house in Howrah was raided. Apart from these two, the CBI searched the houses of a cafe owner on J.K. Ghosh Road in Belgachhia, and Chandan Louho, a businessman in the Tala area. The administrative building at RGKMCH was also searched by a separate CBI team in the presence of the new principal of the hospital, Dr Manas Kumar Bandopadhyay, and the new MSVP, Dr Saptarshi Chatterjee.
