On Friday, ED raids on several West Bengal locations connected to Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The current subject of CBI custody was due to suspected financial irregularities. His opulent bungalow has come under scrutiny.
An assistant to Sandip Ghosh named Prasun Chattopadhyay was arrested by ED investigators during the raids. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had already detained Ghosh and three accomplices on September 3 due to suspected financial irregularities at the government-run RG Kar hospital.
After being detained at his home in Subhasgram, South 24 Parganas, Prasun Chattopadhyay was taken to Madhya Narayanpur in Canning by ED officials. According to News18, which cited locals, Sandip Ghosh is accused of building a multi-crore farm house/bungalow on a two-bigha land there three years ago. Ghosh is said to have visited the property with his family. According to the article, Sandip Ghosh is the owner of the house known as “Sangeeta Sandip Villa,” since he was frequently spotted there with his wife and family. The local media site Ananda Bazar stated that Sandip Ghosh named the home after both himself and his wife, Sangeeta Ghosh.
The raids by the ED were a part of a larger investigation pertaining to suspected financial impropriety at RG Kar Hospital during Ghosh’s term as principal, which involved concurrent searches at nine locations in Kolkata and its environs starting early on Friday morning.
The CBI and ED launched an investigation into financial irregularities at the hospital after a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and killed. On August 9, while working at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College, the postgraduate trainee doctor ‘Abhaya’ was allegedly gang raped and killed. All the doctor’s demands for strict punishment of the perpetrators and increased safety precautions for themselves have resulted in national strikes and protests in response to this incident.