KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned Dr Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, in the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor in the same hospital.According to CBI sources, Ghosh was picked up by CBI officers around 8.30 am for interrogation from a nearby road in his locality and was taken to the CGO complex in Salt Lake. The former superintendent of the hospital Sanjiv Vashishth and the head of chest department Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury have also been summoned for questioning on Friday.The questioning comes hours after the High Court criticised the state machinery over the vandalisation of the hospital on Thursday. The HC had on Tuesday observed that the principal of the RG Kar Medical College should have been the first to be questioned.Ghosh had been summoned several times for questioning by the central probe agency, but he had been evading them. Last night a notice was served to him, which he avoided again and knocked on the doors of the high court seeking protection through his legal counsel, claiming that his life was under threat.When Ghosh’s counsel informed the court that there was a threat of his house being set on fire, the court responded, “Let him rest at home. State is with you, they will give you 400-500 police people. Or you make an application; we will give you central forces.”Several students and even former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former spokesperson Shantanu Sen had alleged that Ghosh ran the college through his coterie, bribes were accepted for leaking questions, and disposal of hospital waste.Seen as close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, there were several allegations against him. After he resigned from the health service, the state government had announced that he was being transferred to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. Within hours of his appointment at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, students denied him entry.The same day, a division bench of the Calcutta high court led by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya had ordered Ghosh to go on leave, but not leave the state.The division bench had raised questions on the conduct of the authorities of the college.“One more aspect, which is also quite disturbing, is that a case of unnatural death has been registered with the Tala police station in case no. 161 of 2024 dated August 9, 2024. It is submitted that under normal circumstances, a case of unnatural death is registered when there is no complaint. When the deceased victim was a doctor working in the hospital, it is rather surprising as to why the Principal/hospital did not lodge a formal complaint. This, in our view, was a serious lapse, giving room for suspicion,” the court said in its order.Meanwhile, the parents of the victim have told the CBI that a few interns and physicians of the same medical establishment were involved in the crime. The parents have also provided the central agency with names of the people they suspect to be associated with their daughter’s killing in the hospital.
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