Kolkata Rape-Murder: Was Sandip Ghosh Taking Orders On Phone After Doc’s Body Was Found?

Kolkata: Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud observed during Tuesday’s hearing in the Kolkata junior doctor’s rape and murder case that what Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had shared in its status report was ‘really disturbing’.

The Supreme Court didn’t divulge details of CBI’s findings so far as it could affect the investigation.

But it is highly likely that former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh may have been taking “orders” from “somebody else” on the phone after the semi-naked body of a female trainee doctor was found in the seminar half of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital on the morning of August 9.

That’s the hunch of CBI — which took over the probe from Kolkata Police on August 14 following an order from the Calcutta High Court — according to a report in The Times of India.

Police and hospital authorities have been accused of a huge ‘cover-up’ to hide facts following the doctor’s demise. The Supreme Court, High Court and CBI have all questioned the long delay in filing of FIR, delay in showing the body to her parents, the way post-mortem procedure was conducted and hurried cremation.

The central agency, after analysing call records of Ghosh, said the disgraced principal spoke to Tala Police station officer in-charge Abhijit Mondal and hospital officials before reaching RG Kar from his residence that day.

Instead of monitoring the proceedings and taking steps for registration of FIR at the earliest, Ghosh was “wilfully absent” from the crime scene and, in fact, reached RG Kar after the police, according to CBI.

Was he acting on someone else’s orders, the CBI has questioned. Is this part of the ‘larger conspiracy’ CBI is suspecting?

CBI will certify details of “each and every phone call” to verify versions with to explore “the possibility of criminal conspiracy hatched among main accused and co-accused persons, if any,” an official was quoted as saying.

Days after civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, the prime accused, was arrested by Kolkata Police, CBI took into custody Ghosh – first over financial irregularities at RG Kar and then in the rape-murder case – and Tala OC Mondal.

CBI sleuths plan to confront the two with CCTV footage from Tala police station and RG Kar Hospital, as well as question them on mobile data extracted from their phones to “unearth the conspiracy/nexus, if any and attempt to hush up the matter.”

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) has cancelled the registration of Ghosh.

WBMC had issued a showcause notice to the arrested doctor seeking response from him as to why his medical registration won’t be cancelled.

The former RG Kar Hospital & Medical College principal’s name has been removed from the list of Registered Medical Practitioners maintained by WBMC on September 19, officials confirmed.

His licence was cancelled under various provisions of the Bengal Medical Act.

There had been demands from all quarters protesting the heinous crime for cancellation of Ghosh’s registration.