Kolkata:

The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet in connection with the RG Kar Hospital financial irregularities in which it has named former principal of the medical establishment Sandip Ghosh as the prime accused, an official said.

In the 100-odd page chargesheet, the central probe agency has also named four others who were arrested for alleged involvement in the irregularities, he said.

“Apart from Ghosh (who has been suspended), the chargesheet includes the names of the other four arrested accused – Biplab Singh, Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Ashish Pandey. The CBI has also attached at least 1,000 pages of documents in support of their investigation of the case,” the officer told PTI.

However, the chargesheet was not accepted by the Special CBI court at Alipore here, as the official approval required to file chargesheet against any state government employee was not available.

“The West Bengal government needs to approve a chargesheet that has the name of its employee before it is submitted in the court. In this case, the approval has not yet come. Both Ghosh and Pandey are doctors of the state-run hospital,” he said.

The chargesheet was filed almost three months after Ghosh was arrested on September 2 in connection with the financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, which grabbed national headlines after the body of an on-duty medic was found in the seminar room in August.

It has been alleged that the financial fraud was underway at the hospital for over three years. During this period, tenders were rigged while purchasing medical equipment for the hospital, and Ghosh allegedly helped his close associates to bag the tenders.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its first chargesheet at a special court in Kolkata in connection with the multi-crore financial irregularities matter at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital here.

Sources aware of the development said that in the first chargesheet, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh and four others have been named.

The other four named in the chargesheet are Asish Pandey, Sandip Ghosh’s personal bodyguard Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Singha. The last two individuals named are private contractors and suppliers.

Besides five individuals, three business entities engaged in the supply of products and services to the RG Kar authorities were also named in the chargesheet.

However, although the chargesheet was submitted by CBI to the court on Friday, it was not officially accepted by the court authorities.

This is because since Sandip Ghosh and Asish Pandey were attached to the West Bengal government as employees, the acceptance of the chargesheet by the court authorities can be done only after there is an official clearance from the state government.

Sources in the know of things said that in the chargesheet, the CBI officials had given details on how Sandip Ghosh used to manipulate the tendering process of RG Kar to ensure that only contractors close to him got work-orders or contracts against hefty commissions.

In the chargesheet, the investigating officials had also given details on the skyrocketing increase in the quantum of assets and properties of the accused persons, especially Sandip Ghosh, during the short period after he assumed the charge as the Principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Sources added that in the chargesheet, Sandip Ghosh has been identified as the mastermind behind the entire alleged scam.

Besides making manipulations in the tendering process, the other charges in the case are getting infrastructure-related work at R.G. Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state public works department, smuggling bio-medical wastes from the hospital and selling the organs of the unidentified bodies brought to the hospital for autopsy purposes.

Besides the financial irregularities case, the CBI is also probing Sandip Ghosh and former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal in connection with the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in August this year.

The main charges against Sandip Ghosh and Mondal in this case are tampering with the evidence and misleading the investigation while the initial probe was being carried out by Kolkata Police before the matter was handed over to CBI.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)