The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday night arrested former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh on allegations that he tampered with evidence in the rape and murder of a trainee doctor on August 9, The Hindu reported.
Ghosh was already in judicial custody on Saturday as the central agency had on September 2 arrested him for alleged corruption at the medical college.
The CBI on Saturday also arrested Tala police station officer-in-charge Abhijit Mondal, accusing him of tampering with evidence and delaying the first information report in the case.
The body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The death sparked protests across the country.
Protestors have pointed to a purported letter by Ghosh to the state public works department a day after the trainee doctor’s body was found, commissioning repair and renovation work for on-duty doctors’ rooms and attached toilets of all departments at the medical college. They alleged that the former principal, by doing so, sought to destroy evidence in the rape and murder case.
Resident doctors at the institution also questioned why the institution’s administration, under Ghosh, had initially passed off the junior doctor’s death as a suicide to her family.
With the arrests of Ghosh and Mondol, three persons have been held in connection with the case. The Kolkata Police had arrested the main accused person, Sanjay Roy, soon after the crime came to light. Roy was a civic volunteer attached with the city police.
The Kolkata Police was investigating the case till August 13, when the Calcutta High Court transferred the matter to the CBI.
Talks between state government, protestors break down again
Dialogue between the protesting doctors and the West Bengal government broke down again on Saturday evening because of disputes about live-streaming the talks and the number of representatives of the demonstrators who could remain present, The Indian Express reported.
The protestors said they sought live-streaming after they arrived at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence for talks, but the government did not agree to the demand.
“We asked if we could get our videographers to shoot the meeting, but the government didn’t agree to that either,” one of the junior doctors from the delegation told The Indian Express. “They said someone would record the minutes of the meeting. We asked for some time, but by the time we decided to agree and went back to tell them, they said time was up.”
Banerjee told the protestors that she would sign the minutes of the meeting and the video would be released with the permission of the court. The chief minister also questioned why the number of representatives of the protestors was higher than what the government had asked for.
“We asked for 15 people, you came with 40,” Banerjee said. “Even then, we have made arrangements for you.”
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