KOLKATA
With protests raging over the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, former principal Sandip Kumar Ghosh, the former principal of the institution continues to be in the eye of the storm. The West Bengal Government has set up a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe financial irregularities at the medical since 2021 and Kolkata Police has registered a case against Dr. Ghosh under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prevention of Corruption Act among other charges.
Also Read: Kolkata doctor rape-murder case updates
On Monday (August 19, 2024), Dr. Ghosh was quizzed for the fourth consecutive time at the city office of the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection to the rape and murder of a female postgraduate trainee on duty at the RGKMCH premises on August 9.
Dr. Ghosh’s mobile phone logs as well as his WhatsApp chats are reportedly being examined by the CBI, according to officials of the investigating agency.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ghosh’s residence turned into a protest site on Sunday (August 18, 2024) as protestors gathered in huge numbers outside his gate demanding justice for the victim.
Since the discovery of the victim’s body in the fourth-floor seminar room of the RGKMCH emergency building, pressure was mounting on the former principal for the actions taken by the hospital authorities following the doctor’s death. “At first, the hospital authorities told us over a phone call that our daughter died by suicide… after we arrived at the hospital, we were made to wait three hours before we could see her body,” the bereaved parents of the victim has alleged.
Dr. Ghosh has also come under fire for the alleged renovations of the rooms in the vicinity of the seminar hall where the victim’s body was found.
On August 12, amidst the increasing public outrage, he resigned from the post of principal of RGKMCH. “I repeat, that by putting words in my mouth, certain selfish, dissenting individuals have turned this into a political game. I have never indulged in that,” he told media persons on after submitting his resignation. “Some people have called me pro-government. Yes, I am a government employee and I will carry out government duties till my last breath.”
However, within hours of Dr. Ghosh announcing his resignation, protesting junior doctors and medical students were shocked to find out that he was appointed the principal of another premier institution in the city, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH). “He told us that he has children at home and he is being strongly criticised for the incident. So we told him that he does not have to work at RGKMCH anymore, and we transferred him elsewhere,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on August 12.
The following day, students of CNMCH locked the principal’s room of the medical college and conducted a sit-in demonstration around it, making it clear through their slogans and demands that they would not allow Dr. Ghosh to take charge as their new principal.
The very same day, the Calcutta High Court Bench said it was not clear as to why Dr. Ghosh was so urgently reappointed as the principal of another medical college within hours of his resignation from RGKMCH. The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya also directed that he should be sent on leave and not permitted to hold the post of principal of CNMCH until further directions, noting that several submissions were made at the bar with regard to how highly influential the former principal is.
The court in its August 13 order also pointed out that it was a clear dereliction of duty on the part of Dr. Ghosh, then principal of RGKMCH, and the officers under his command to not have lodged a complaint with the police given a trainee doctor of the hospital died within the hospital premises. A case of unnatural death was initiated at the Tala Police Station. “This, in our view, was a serious lapse, giving room for suspicion,” the court noted.
By then, outrage against the principal had mounted further as Dr. Ghosh was caught revealing the identity of the victim and alleging that “it was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night.”
Dr. Ghosh was born and raised in Bongaon in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. An orthopaedic surgeon, he was a student of RGKMCH himself, he found himself at the receiving end of fierce criticism by fellow doctors, who took a vocal stance against his actions surrounding the incident on August 9 as well as his past controversies.
Dr. Ghosh was the medical superintendent and vice-principal of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH) for four years before being appointed the principal of RGKMCH in 2021. Shortly after, hundreds of medical students at RGKMCH began a hunger strike outside his office to demand two separate councils for students and hostels respectively.
In 2023, Dr. Ghosh was replaced as the RGKMCH principal twice. In the transfer order that was issued in May last year, the order was revoked within a day and Dr Ghosh remained the principal. Months later, in September 2023, Dr Ghosh was once again transferred to Murshidabad Medical College but he was reinstated as the principal of RGKMCH within a month of his transfer.
Dr. Akhtar Ali, former Deputy Superintendent of RGKMCH commented on his ex-colleague Dr. Ghosh and alleged that he is a very corrupt man. He mentioned that he had filed a complaint against the former principal on July 2023 at the Vigilance Commission Anti-Corruption Department and Swastha Bhawan. Dr. Ali reiterated, “Ghosh got transferred after that complaint, but it was revoked in no time.”
The former Deputy Superintendent then went on to share some more grave allegations and said, “[Dr. Ghosh] failed students on purpose, took 20% commission on tenders, took money for hostel allotments, staff selection commission, basically any work that happened in R.G. Kar like postings, transfer, or housestaffship, he used to take money for everything.”
Dr. Ali also accused Dr Ghosh of serious professional misconduct, “I have not seen a worse man than him in my entire career. He is like a mafia raja. He used to have 20 people for his personal security and 4 bouncers. I have never seen a principal have this much influence.”
He claimed that Dr. Ghosh’s resignation from the principal position of RGKMCH this year was part of a “masterplan” and “eyewash”.
Medical associations retaliate
Former principal Sandip Ghosh landed in further trouble on Monday as the organisation “People for Better Treatment (PBT)” which works against malpractices in the medical field sent an urgent complaint to the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) to, “Cancel medical license of Dr. Sandip Ghosh immediately for “moral turpitude”.
On August 16, West Bengal Orthopedic Association (WBOA) had also issued a strong notice to Dr. Ghosh on his involvement in the ongoing investigation in the R.G. Kar rape and murder incident. The letter said, “Until you come clean, and the final verdict comes from the Court, we are forced to keep you aside from all our academic activities under the banner of WBOA.”
The association has given him a 30-days window to respond to the letter.
Before Dr. Ghosh was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Indian Medical Association members in Kolkata brought serious allegations against Mr. Ghosh, saying, “Last three 3 years R. G. Kar hospital has made headlines for all wrong reasons like financial frauds, vindictiveness towards students who don’t favour him.” He also said, “Sorry, I cannot consider Sandip Ghosh to be a doctor in any respect. Then we cannot call ourselves doctor.”