RG Kar probe: Three business entities named in CBI FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is expanding its ambit of investigation in the financial irregularities at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata by including names of three business entities in the first information report (FIR) filed in the matter.

Sources said that the three new names included in the FIR are of three business entities namely Maa Tara Traders, Ehsan Cafe and Kham Louha.

All these names were mentioned in the petition filed in the matter of irregularities at the Calcutta High Court by a whistleblower and the former deputy superintendent of R.G. Kar, Akhtar Ali, acting on which the court last week directed the CBI to take charge of the investigation.

The CBI initiated the investigation by filing FIR against the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh, who is already under the scanner of the central agency sleuths not only in the matter of the financial irregularities but also in the case of the rape and murder of a junior doctor within the hospital premises earlier this month.

Sources said the three business entities were named in the FIR following specific clues that they were beneficiaries in the financial irregularities allegedly done when Ghosh was at the helm of affairs at R.G. Kar.

On Sunday, the CBI sleuths conducted marathon raids and search operations at the residences of Ghosh at Beliaghata in central Kolkata and the proprietor of Maa Tara Traders Biplab Sinha in Howrah district. The raid and search operations were conducted at some other places, including one former and one present official attached with R.G. Kar.

As per findings of the CBI officials, sources said that Maa Tara Traders enjoyed a virtual monopoly in supplying different medical equipment to R.G. Kar because of the closeness of its proprietor with Ghosh.

The CBI officials are carrying out a multi-angle investigation in the matter of financial irregularities at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital involving 15 specific charges of fund fudging, sources have said.

The main allegation is the tendering of different contracts to private and outsourced parties without getting the necessary approval from the state health department and the college council.