MY KOLKATA EDUGRAPH
ADVERTISEMENT
regular-article-logo Friday, 22 November 2024

Probe into RG Kar ‘irregularities’: ED raids Sandip Ghosh's homes, other sites

The raids came within a week of the central agency drawing up an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent to an FIR, for the alleged irregularities

Kinsuk Basu Calcutta Published 07.09.24, 06:05 AM
CRPF personnel outside Sandip Ghosh's residence in Phoolbagan during the ED raid on Friday afternoon.

CRPF personnel outside Sandip Ghosh's residence in Phoolbagan during the ED raid on Friday afternoon. Gautam Bose

At least 11 places, including two houses of the arrested former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, were raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the hospital.

The raids started around 6.30am and continued well into the evening,

ADVERTISEMENT

The raids came within a week of the central agency drawing up an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent to an FIR, for the alleged irregularities.

The CBI arrested Ghosh, during whose tenure as principal a young doctor was raped and murdered at RG Kar, and three others — Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Singha — on September 2 in connection with the alleged irregularities at the hospital.

A team reached Ghosh’s Phoolbagan home around 6.30am. The officers waited for almost three hours before Ghosh’s wife opened the doors to the three-storey house.

“He (Ghosh) is not involved in any financial irregularities. We have been cooperating with all the investigating agencies and will continue to do so. No documents have been seized so far,” Ghosh’s wife, her face covered with a scarf, told reporters.

Another team reached Ghosh’s house in Canning, South 24-Parganas, and waited for some time before the keys to the locked property could be found.

Residents of Narayanpur in Canning said Ghosh had purchased the property — a two-storey house named “Sangeeta Sandip Villa” stands in the middle of a two-bigha plot — around two years back.

Yet another ED team raided the house of Prasun Chatterjee, a data entry operator at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, in Subhasgram, South 24-Parganas.

Chatterjee was among those spotted in the seminar hall in the Emergency Building of RG Kar when the body of the junior doctor was still there.

Sources said Chatterjee had been close to Ghosh since his tenure as vice-principal and medical superintendent of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital.

A section of doctors said it was not clear yet what Chatterjee was doing at RG Kar when he should have been 7.5km away, at Calcutta National Medical College.

After almost seven hours of search, ED officers took Chatterjee to Ghosh’s bungalow in Canning.

Officers said separate teams visited the home of Ghosh’s in-laws in Hooghly’s Baidyabati and sister-in-law near the airport.

In Baidyabati, the ED officers found the in-laws’ house locked. After waiting for some time, the team went to the house of Kunal Roy, who works at a private firm.

Sleuths of the agency also searched the house of Biplab Singha, a medicine supplier and one of the three arrested with Ghosh, in Howrah’s Sankrail. The sleuths also went to the house of Kaushik Koley, Singha’s accountant, in Sankrail.

Officers said the accountant was asked about his employer’s business.

Also searched were the houses of Swapan Saha (a businessman) in Salt Lake, Ankur Roy (owner of a launderette) in Madurdaha, and a private company’s office on Camac Street.

Follow us on:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT