CBI probe reveals RG Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh rigged house staff selections, appointed 'candidates of choice': Report

The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) probe into the rape-murder of a trainee doctor and the alleged financial irregularities at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has revealed corruption in appointment of house staff by former principal Sandip Ghosh.

According to a report by Times of India, the central probing agency told a special CBI court that Ghosh and his aides, who are also co-accused in the case, rigged students' results to appoint "candidates of their choice" as house staff after the completion of their MBBS internships.

CBI has also flagged the lack of transparency in appointments and said in its report that Ghosh "surpassed the process and straightaway appointed house staff of his choice."

The CBI has investigated the recruitment process of 2022, 2023 and claimed that the doctors of the medical college had no idea about any panel for house staff selections.

The report cited CBI submissions to the court which mentions that Ghosh came up with "interviews" for the selections process. For the "fictitious interviews", Ghosh would allegedly make a list of candidates of his choice without considering merit. Marks of these interviews were also added to the final MBBS scores of the favoured candidates, picked against payments to Ghosh's cronies.

The lack of transparency in the whole process can be gauged from the fact that the appointment letters of the house staff only mentioned the final marks.

The probe has also revealed that the arrested former principal was operating a "criminal nexus” along with the other "co-accused” for “wrongful gains”. This included "bid rigging" for providing hospital contracts to his favoured vendors.

Ghosh, along with Biplab Singha, Suman Hazra, and Afsar Ali, who are also co-accused in the financial irregularities case, were produced before the court on Tuesday.