Kolkata doctor case: Hearing on Sandip Ghosh’s plea in HC postponed

Calcutta High Court, on Monday, postponed the hearing on a plea filed by Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, seeking police protection.

The hearing was postponed to Wednesday because the submission and exchange of affidavits among all parties in the case was yet to be completed.

Last week, Ghosh’s counsel sought the attention of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice, T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya with a similar plea.

But instead of accepting that, the division bench advised Ghosh’s counsel to file a petition with a single judge bench as per protocol, which the counsel of Ghosh did.

However, at the same time, the Chief Justice made some observations regarding the plea for police protection. He observed that since Ghosh was quite influential, if he desired the state government would depute 500 police personnel at his residence.

On that very day for the first time, Ghosh appeared at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s Salt Lake office for interrogation in the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor on the premises of the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital earlier this month.

Ghosh had been at the centre of controversy since the time the body of the woman doctor was recovered from the seminar hall of the hospital building on August 9 morning.

A couple of days after the incident, he announced resigning both as the principal of the R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital as well as from the state health services. However, on the same evening, the state health department issued a notification appointing Ghosh as the principal of the Calcutta National Medical College & Hospital (CNMCH).

However, Ghosh could not occupy the chair since the same division bench of Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Bhattacharya directed him to go on a long leave and also barred him from being appointed as principal of any medical college & hospital in the state.