Ex-Kolkata Principal Goes To Supreme Court Against Corruption Case Transfer

Former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Principal Sandip Ghosh, who has found himself at the centre of a storm after a trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the institution last month, has approached the Supreme Court and challenged a Calcutta High Court order transferring the investigation into the corruption case against him to the CBI. Ghosh has also sought the expunging of some remarks made against him by the High Court bench.

The Calcutta High Court had ordered the transfer of the investigation into the alleged financial irregularities at the state-run hospital, where Ghosh had been the principal since 2021 - with a brief hiatus in between - from a special investigation team to the CBI on August 23. The order had come after a former deputy superintendent of the facility, Dr Akhtar Ali, had sought an investigation into the alleged irregularities during Ghosh's tenure as the head of the hospital. 

Ghosh was arrested by the CBI in the case on Monday after being questioned several times in a span of two weeks. Three other people - vendors Biplav Singha and Suman Hazara, and Afsar Ali, a security guard - were also taken into custody. Ghosh was sent to the CBI's custody for eight days and the West Bengal government, which has been under fire over its handling of the rape case and a posting given to the former RG Kar principal after he resigned following the rape and murder, suspended him on Tuesday. 

In his petition before the Supreme Court, Ghosh said the Calcutta High Court did not hear his side while ordering the CBI investigation into the corruption case against him. He has argued that he filed a petition in the High Court seeking to make himself a party, but it was rejected. This, he claimed, proved that the principles of natural justice were not followed. 

Ghosh has also sought the removal of some comments by the High Court linking the corruption allegations with the rape of the trainee doctor. 

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear the petition on Friday. 

A Supreme Court bench had earlier wondered why Ghosh had not lodged a police case immediately after the trainee doctor's body was discovered in a seminar hall of the RG Kar hospital on August 9. After widespread protests, he had resigned from his post on August 12 but was appointed the principal of the Calcutta National Medical College hours later. The High Court, however, asked him to not take up the post and go on a long leave.