News Brief
Nishtha Anushree
Sep 03, 2024, 10:11 AM | Updated 10:11 AM IST
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The former principal of Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where a trainee doctor was raped and murdered, Dr Sandip Ghosh has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI was investigating him for financial misconduct at the hospital during his tenure from 2021 until he stepped down taking 'moral responsibility' for the 31-year-old doctor's murder.
The arrest comes after the central investigative agency questioned him continuously for two weeks, both in the murder case as well as financial irregularities and corruption case.
Three additional individuals have been arrested alongside Ghosh. They are vendors Biplav Singha and Suman Hazara, who supplied medicine to the hospital, and Afsar Ali, a security guard.
Ghosh was accused of misusing government funds, illegally distributing assets, awarding contracts to ineligible bidders, and violating financial regulations by the hospital's former deputy superintendent.
The complaint also alleged that Ghosh had sold hazardous biomedical waste unlawfully and misappropriated COVID-19 funds to create a gym and renovate office spaces.
Ghosh has been under fire over lapses in the murder case as well like trying to downplay the murder as suicide and delays in filing the First Information Report (FIR) and showing the parents their daughter's body.
Following the Calcutta High Court's decision to assign the financial irregularities case to the agency, a search was conducted at his residence on 25 August.
When asked later in the evening if any evidence had been found, an official responded with "lots." The former Principal has also undergone two rounds of polygraph tests.
Nishtha Anushree is Senior Sub-editor at Swarajya. She tweets at @nishthaanushree.