R.G. Kar financial scam: CBI video records statements of witnesses

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, probing the multi-crore financial irregularities case at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, have video-recorded statements of witnesses, who are colleagues of Sandip Ghosh, the former and controversial principal of the institution.

Sources said recording statements of the medicine-procurement committee members of R. G. Kar would play a crucial role in making the case watertight against Ghosh.

The committee members, who were questioned as witnesses, informed the investigating officials of how Ghosh forced them to sign procurement-related documents and ignored objections raised regarding several procurements.

The source added that the witnesses' statements conform with the contents of several documents seized from the residences of Ghosh and his two trusted suppliers Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra.

The investigating officials have identified Ghosh, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha as the biggest beneficiaries of the "scam". All three of them are in judicial custody now, though Ghosh has been recently granted "default bail" by a special court in Kolkata in connection with the gruesome rape and murder of a doctor at R.G. Kar in August 2023.

Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal were granted "default bail" after CBI could not submit a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrest in the rape and murder case. Mondal is currently out on bail.

The main charges against Ghosh in the financial irregularities are manipulation in the tendering process, 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 coming to the hospital for autopsy purposes.

The CBI filed its first chargesheet in the case on 29 November 2023.