Kolkata, Aug 29 (PTI) CBI officers questioned TMC MLA Atin Ghosh at his north Kolkata residence for nearly two and a half hours on Friday over the alleged financial irregularities at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital that the agency is probing alongside the rape and murder of a postgraduate intern within the institution premises last year, officials said.
Ghosh, also the deputy mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, is the second TMC lawmaker, after the party’s Sreerampur MLA Sudipto Roy, to face the agency’s examination in connection with the case.
Emerging from the questioning session, Ghosh said he answered all queries put before him by the CBI officers but refused to divulge further details on the grounds that the matter was sub-judice.
His statements were recorded by the investigating agency.
The leader confirmed, though, that the agency’s questions revolved around the functions of the hospital’s Patient Welfare Committee, of which he was an ex-officio member on account of him being the MLA of the local Kashipur-Belgachhia constituency.
“I have been the local MLA since 2021 and have attended some 8-10 meetings of the RG Kar Patient Welfare Committee. The committee held some 3-4 meetings annually and the CBI wanted to know about the role of the body in running the hospital administration and my involvement in it,” Ghosh said, holding up the agency notice certifying that the legislator was questioned as a witness to the case under Section 179 of the BNSS.
A team of two CBI officers, accompanied by a contingent of armed central paramilitary troops, landed up at Ghosh’s Shyambazar residence, APC Abasan, an apartment building on APC Road, at around 2.15 pm.
The officers, who were seen carrying document files when they walked inside Ghosh’s house, left the premises at around 5 pm.
“The CBI had called me and informed me about their intentions to question me in connection with the case. At first, I disbelieved them because of such fraudulent calls one gets from scammers these days. I have no regrets that the agency visited my house,” Ghosh said.
The CBI previously arrested five accused, including the college’s former principal Sandip Ghosh, in connection with the case, all of whom are currently in jail.
The arrests were made following the gruesome rape and murder of the junior doctor on August 9 last year and a subsequent complaint of multi-crore corruption and a ‘syndicate raj’ prevalent at the institution, allegedly at the behest of the hospital’s Patient Welfare Committee.
The complainant, Akhtar Ali, a former deputy superintendent of the medical college, alleged trafficking of bodies and biomedical waste from the hospital by its authorities, besides bribery and large scale financial irregularities involving nepotism by means of fraudulent work orders and bypassing of tenders.
On August 29, last year, the CBI submitted its preliminary chargesheet in the financial corruption case at RG Kar hospital in Alipore Court, naming five people, including Ghosh who doubled up as the Committee secretary.
Charges against all five were framed in court in July this year under multiple sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Sources confirmed that the Trinamool legislator was questioned after his name cropped up during the course of the investigation.
“Atin Ghosh was an ex-officio member of the RG Kar Patient Welfare Committee and his role in that body needs to be ascertained. We examined him as part of this ongoing investigation,” an official said.
A week ago, the CBI conducted search operations at the north Kolkata residence of another TMC MLA and doctor Sudipto Roy in Sinthi for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities case.
Roy, a legislator from Sreerampur, was the chairperson of the Patient Welfare Committee at RG Kar hospital at the time of the crime and is also the president of the West Bengal Medical Council.
The CBI, as well as the ED, has conducted multiple raids at Roy’s house in the past for his alleged involvement in the case. Responding to the Friday raids at Ghosh’s residence, the father of the RG Kar victim said he felt a “wee bit happy” that the TMC leader’s name “finally surfaced” in connection with the crime.
“We always doubted his involvement in various matters of RG Kar. But his name never came to the forefront before. We are happy that he is finally under the CBI’s scanner,” he said.
Union minister and BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar questioned the activities of the committees across state-run hospitals and their composition.
“This patient welfare committee is a curious thing. The posts here are almost always exclusively reserved for TMC leaders. Atin Ghosh has derived the sweeteners from this panel for so long, it’s time for him now to taste the bitter agency pill,” Majumdar said.