The CBI has conducted a raid at the residence of Kolkata Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh in connection with the RG Kar Hospital scam investigation.
The brutal rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate medical trainee on August 9 last year inside a seminar room brought the state-run hospital into the headlines.
On Friday, the CBI conducted a raid at the residence of Kolkata Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh in connection with alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Ghosh was present at his residence while CBI officials questioned him.
“I was an ex-officio member of the Patients’ Welfare Committee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and took part in a few meetings. Beyond that, I had no involvement. The CBI officials had a few queries, which I have responded to,” Ghosh told reporters after they left.
In the aftermath of last year’s rape and murder of the postgraduate medical trainee, the chief minister disbanded the committees.
Around 2 PM, the CBI team, accompanied by central forces, arrived at the deputy mayor’s residence in the Shyambazar area of north Kolkata.
Ghosh had reportedly been informed in advance about the questioning. He also serves as the MLA from the Kashipur-Belgachhia constituency and is a senior councilor in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a state-run facility located in Belgachhia within Ghosh’s constituency, made headlines last year after a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered in one of its seminar rooms on August 9.
The rape and murder sparked months of widespread protests throughout the state.
Sandip Ghosh, who was the principal of the college at the time, resigned on August 12 last year. The CBI arrested him on September 2 in connection with financial irregularities at the medical college, a case the Calcutta High Court transferred to the central agency alongside the rape-murder probe.
The CBI claimed that the financial fraud at the hospital had been taking place for more than three years.
The CBI filed a chargesheet on November 29 against Ghosh; Ashish Pandey, a house staff member at the medical college; Trinamool youth leader Afsar Ali, who served as Ghosh’s guard during his tenure as principal; and two contractors, Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra.
The key allegations included manipulating the tender process, outsourcing infrastructure projects to private firms while bypassing the state’s public works department, and illegally removing bio-medical waste from the hospital.
Atin Ghosh also holds the position of mayor-in-council overseeing health, vector control, disinfectant programs, and the central medical stores.
