Calcutta HC questions Bengal govt’s ‘late realisation’ to probe financial irregularities at RG Kar

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday questioned the decision of the West Bengal government to set up a special investigation team to probe the alleged financial irregularities at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata when the controversial former principal Sandip Ghosh was in charge of the institution, even as the state health department was informed about the irregularities last year.

A single-judge bench of Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj made this observation while hearing a petition by the whistle-blower in the matter — former deputy medical superintendent of RG Kar — Akhtar Ali, who had sought the High Court’s intervention to seek protection in anticipation of security threat for being vocal against Sandip Ghosh.

On Wednesday, Ali also filed a public interest litigation seeking a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar.

During the hearing, Justice Bhardwaj observed that “from the inclusion of senior police officers in the special investigation team, it is evident that the matter is serious, and wondered why the team was constituted a year after the matter was brought to the notice of the state government”.

The state government counsel argued that the petition has been deliberately filed at this moment amid the recent incident of the rape and murder of a woman doctor in the R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital.

The state government counsel also questioned why the petitioner remained silent for one year after the complaint was not acted upon as claimed by him.

The Calcutta High Court also directed the state government counsel to present a detailed argument on the formation of SIT on Friday.

The West Bengal government earlier this week announced the formation of a special investigation team comprising four senior IPS officers and headed by an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police to prove the allegation of financial irregularities at RG Kar since 2021, when Sandip Ghosh was the principal there.

Opposition parties have already claimed that the formation of SIT by the state government was nothing but an eyewash, and it had been created not with the intention of revealing the truth behind the financial irregularities, but rather with the motive of destroying evidence in the matter.

–IANS