SC dismisses plea of ex-principal of RG Kar Hospital challenging HC order

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by former principal of Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh challenging the Calcutta High Court order dismissing his plea to be added as a party to a petition alleging financial irregularities at the institute during his tenure.

On August 23, the high court ordered the transfer of the probe into the alleged financial irregularities from a state-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said as an accused Ghosh has no locus to impleaded in the plea.

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"As an accused you have no locus to intervene in the PIL, where the Calcutta high court is monitoring the investigation," the bench said. The murder and alleged rape of a junior doctor at the state-run hospital has sparked nationwide protests. The medic's body with severe injury marks was found in the seminar hall of the hospital's chest department on August 9.

A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day. The high court's August 23 order had come on a petition by former deputy superintendent of the facility,

Akhtar Ali, who had requested a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into alleged financial misconduct at the hospital during the tenure of Ghosh. The high court had also dismissed Ghosh's plea to be added as a party in the petition, holding that he was not a "necessary party" in the matter.