KOLKATA: After grilling Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and two other vendors linked to the hospital, the CBI claims to have found a letter written by Ghosh to the Public Works Department asking for the renovation of a toilet just beside the seminar hall where the body of the trainee doctor was found on August 9, sources said.
Ghosh claimed that the letter was endorsed by the director of medical education and state health secretary.
However, the health department issued a clarification to the CBI saying that internal works of the hospital were looked after by the hospital authorities and that there is no need for any clearance from the state health department.
Sources in the hospital said the renovation work was stalled after junior doctors started a cease-work agitation, not allowing contractors to start the work. Junior doctors said the repair work was done deliberately “so that evidence of rape and murder could be tampered with”.
Senior CBI officials said they were looking into other letters sent by Sandip Ghosh and that they have also received original copies of the tender that was given to contractors by flouting all norms.
Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool refuted accusations of a police cover-up as alleged by the parents of the woman doctor who was raped and murdered. The party insisted that a newly surfaced video contradicts their claims by showing the family previously satisfied with the investigation.
The family was quick to respond, claiming that the video was forcibly recorded by the police just after the cremation.
The family members of the deceased medic, who joined the protesting doctors at RG Kar hospital on Wednesday night, accused the Kolkata Police of attempting to suppress the case by hastily cremating the body.
The video, the authenticity of which could not be independently verified, was played at a presser at the TMC office, where the parents were heard saying that they were never offered money.
In a related development, West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose has criticised the state administration for its handling of the situation.
Top court to take up RG Kar case on Monday
The Supreme Court will hear the suo motu cognisance involving the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Monday. A three-judge bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud and also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, will hear the matter. Meanwhile, eminent artist Sanatan Dinda resigned from an autonomous body under the Bengal government as a mark of protest.