The CBI questioned Birupaksha Biswas, a doctor said to be close to Sandip Ghosh, the arrested former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, on Saturday as a part of its probe into the rape and murder of the 31-year-old junior doctor there.

Biswas, along with another junior doctor Avik De, were allegedly present in the seminar room on the third floor of the emergency building of RG Kar on August 9 when the body of the junior doctor was still there.

CBI sources said De will also be questioned as a part of the probe.

Biswas is a senior resident in the pathology department of the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital. He was transferred to Kakdwip Sub-divisional Hospital last year but the Burdwan hospital did not issue a release order.

The order was issued earlier this month and within a few days, the state health department suspended him — along with De — after receiving multiple allegations of misconduct.

Sources in the central agency said Biswas was spotted behind Sudipta Roy, former chairman of the RG Kar’s Rogi Kalyan Samity, when Roy was interacting with the media on August 9. It was crucial to find out what Biswas was doing at RG Kar when he was supposed to be at the Burdwan hospital, the investigators said.

Biswas has so far maintained he did not visit the scene of the crime in the seminar room the day the junior doctor was found dead
even though he was present at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

On Saturday, Biswas turned up at the CBI’s office at the CGO Complex in Salt
Lake around 10am to meet the interrogators.

Asked if he was close to Ghosh and whether he was present at the crime scene, Biswas did not reply. “Let me talk (to the officers)... will speak to you after that,” Biswas told reporters.

Senior health department officials said there were allegations against Biswas that he was part of a lobby that manipulated appointments in government hospitals and threatened students and faculty members who spoke against them.

“We have been demanding from the state government an end to the culture of threat across medical colleges and hospitals, courtesy of the likes of Birupakasha Biswas and Avik De,” said Aniket Mahato, one of the protesting junior doctors from RG Kar

Biswas was being questioned till the last reports.