Trinamool Leader Arrested In RG Kar Hospital Corruption Case: CBI

A doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital and an alleged confidant of its former principal Sandip Ghosh, Ashish Pande, has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the corruption case it is investigating alongside the horrific rape-murder of a young doctor that had shocked the country. Officials of the Central agency claimed Ashish Pande is also a member of Trinamool Congress and is associated with its student wing.  There, however, has been no confirmation or comment on the matter from the Trinamool Congress. 

He will be produced in court Friday. 

This is the fifth arrest in the corruption case. 

Earlier, the agency had arrested Sandip Ghosh and three others -- his bodyguard Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha, vendors supplying medical equipment to the hospital when Ghosh was the principal.

Ashish Pandey, who is also employed at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, is reportedly associated with the Trinamool Congress Students' Wing - TMCP. He was allegedly the TMCP unit president of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (students' unit) state president and party spokesperson Trinankur Bhattacharya told news agency Press Trust of India: "We are yet to hear details about the case. But as of now, we can say that the law will take its own course and we have faith in the justice system." 

Ashish Pandey was earlier mentioned in the list of 59 people at the hospital who were issued show-cause notices by the hospital administration and asked to appear before an inquiry committee set up after the rape and murder of the second year post-graduate student. 

Ashish Pandey had to be rescued by security personnel after he was heckled and pushed by the protesting junior doctors when he went to the hospital to appear before the inquiry committee looking into complaints of harassment and intimidation on campus. 

Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari asserted that Pandey was a "strongman of the TMC, who was part of the propagator of the threat culture in state-run medical colleges".

"With his arrest and interrogation, CBI will be able to reach to the bottom of this culture at medical colleges and find out all those involved," Mr Adhikari was quoted as saying by PTI.

Sandip Ghosh was arrested by the CBI in connection with the case registered after allegations of financial irregularities surfaced. The Calcutta High Court had handed over the investigation to the CBI after the Kolkata Police registered a case based on complaints filed with the police.

The financial irregularities case involves irregularities in award of contracts, getting the infrastructure-related tasks of the hospital done by individuals or firms instead of getting them done by the state public works department (PWD), the sale of biomedical waste which is illegal, and sale of selling organs from unidentified bodies brought for postmortem, at "lucrative prices" outside.

Sandip Ghosh has also been arrested in connection with the rape-murder case and has undergone two polygraph tests.  He and the police officer who initially investigated the rape and murder of the doctor have been accused of attempting to hide evidence and sabotage the investigation. 

The trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on August 9. The key suspect, civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, a was seen on CCTV during investigation after the doctor's body was found.