RG Kar scam case: SC dismisses Sandip Ghosh's plea against CBI probe

New Delhi, Sep 6 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of Kolkata's R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital where a woman doctor was found raped and murdered last month, challenging the CBI probe into the alleged financial irregularities at the state-run institute during his tenure.

A bench presided over by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud said that as an accused, Sandip Ghosh has no locus to intervene in PIL proceedings when the Calcutta High Court is monitoring the investigation and has entrusted the probe to the CBI.

Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for Ghosh, said that the petition filed before the apex court has not challenged the CBI investigation into the alleged financial irregularities but questioned its linkage with the alleged rape and murder of the doctor in the hospital.

At this, the Bench, also comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said, “Both aspects are a matter of investigation.”

Arora reiterated there cannot be any nexus between the issue of the alleged selling of biomedical waste and the incident of alleged rape and murder, adding that serious prejudice will be caused to Ghosh if adverse observations made in the Calcutta High Court are not expunged.

“I am not objecting to the CBI probe but aggrieved with certain observations,” she explained. The senior counsel further highlighted that identical petitions were dismissed by the Calcutta HC in the past.

However, the apex court said that only “prima facie” observations were made by the Calcutta High Court, where the issue of biomedical waste was a “trigger”.

“We cannot order CBI to investigate only this and nothing else, which could be likely an offence,” the CJI-led Bench said, clarifying that it would not stultify the CBI probe.

The special leave petition filed by Ghosh before the apex court challenged the August 23 order of the Calcutta High Court directing the CBI to take charge of the investigation into the alleged financial irregularities when he was in charge of the medical hospital.

There had been several complaints about financial irregularities at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital when Ghosh was at the helm of affairs there as the principal. The charges include tendering of different contracts to private and outsourced parties of his confidence without getting the necessary approval from the state Health Department and the college council, getting the infrastructure-related tasks of the hospital done by private outsourced entities or individuals, instead of following the standard practice of getting them done by the state Public Works Department (PWD) and selling biomedical wastes of the hospital, including organs of the unidentified bodies coming to the hospital mortuary for post-mortem purposes, outside.

Acting on a petition by the whistleblower, Akhtar Ali, who is a former deputy medical superintendent of R.G. Kar, a bench of Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj of the Calcutta HC said the CBI inquiry will be court-monitored. On the same afternoon, Ghosh approached a division bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Hiranmay Bhattacharya challenging the single-judge bench order. However, he was given no instant relief and was advised to get a copy of the single-judge bench's order first.

Instead of approaching the division bench again with the single-judge bench's order copy, Ghosh chose to move to the Supreme Court.

Following the high court order, CBI officials conducted raid and search operations at multiple locations in Kolkata. Ghosh and three others were taken into custody by the CBI's Economic Offences Wing on September 2 evening. A special court in Kolkata on Tuesday sent Ghosh, arrested over alleged financial irregularities at the state-run college, to eight days CBI custody.

Ghosh had been interrogated both in the financial irregularities case as well as the ghastly rape and murder of junior doctor of R.G. Kar within the hospital premises last month. The central agency officials are conducting parallel probes in both these cases which are court-directed as well as court-monitored.