The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh on charges of financial misconduct before the September 5 hearing in the Supreme Court, sources said.

He was later escorted to the CBI's Nizam Palace office in Kolkata which houses the agency's anti-corruption wing and was shown as arrested.

Ghosh, an orthopaedic surgeon, is not only charged with financial misconduct and other illegal acts, including illegal sale of bio-medical waste, running organ trade and selling of bodies by his former colleague Akhtar Ali, but he has also been accused of controlling all the illegal syndicates that were active in most of the State-run medical colleges of West Bengal.

In March 2023, Ali, a Non-Medical Assistant Superintendent at RG Kar Medical College wrote a letter to the authorities, including the vigilance commission and even the Chief Minister's office accusing the former principal of corruption that included illegal body trafficking and biomedical waste disposal.

The Monday's arrest comes days after the CBI named Ghosh in the FIR in connection with its probe into alleged financial irregularities at the hospital during his tenure. The CBI arrested Ghosh after grilling him for more than 150 hours over days.

The arrest of Ghosh comes in the midst of a movement against the rape and murder of an on-duty postgraduate lady doctor of RGKMCH.

He is the second person to be arrested in the rape and murder case. Earlier, a civic volunteer was arrested on charges of raping and murdering the lady doctor.

Ghosh's arrest is significant given his close proximity to the State's political establishment. He had reportedly treated a top politician for leg injuries during the State election a few years ago.

A few days after the rape and murder case surfaced, the State Government transferred Ghosh, who had resigned earlier, with a prize-posting to another medical college in Kolkata, leading to an outcry in the medical fraternity.

There was a strong demand for his dismissal and arrest.

More trouble awaits Ghosh as the Enforcement Directorate too has filed a money-laundering case to probe his alleged role in financial irregularities inside the RGKMCH.

Recently, the Indian Medical Association had suspended his membership.

Protesting junior doctors, people  and medical fraternity celebrated after news surfaced of the arrest of Ghosh. 

Meanwhile, the CBI is likely to submit a closed envelope before the Supreme Court on September 5 detailing its preliminary findings, sources said.

The envelope may contain names not only of the prime suspects of RGKMCH who might have played a role in destroying evidence but also of some big guns in the political echelon who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the syndicate raj — that was plaguing the State-run medical colleges — but for which the rape and murder might not have taken place.

According to sources the CBI officials who had subjected a number of people including prime accused Sanjoy Roy and former RG Kar principal Ghosh to polygraph tests are still in doubt about the truth that is being dished out to them.

“It is quite intriguing how the accused went up to the seminar hall on the third floor breaking the security rings. Getting inside the hospital area is difficult as even doctors’ own relatives who are familiar to the security persons are not allowed in,” said one source.

The arrested accused in the alleged rape and murder of the woman medic would likely plead “not guilty” in the court since he was “framed” in the case, his counsel said on Monday.

The accused, who is currently lodged in the Presidency Correctional Home, has told the lawyer that the doctor was not known to him, she added.

“We will fight our case based on the documents produced by the prosecution lawyers before the court,” she said, claiming that the accused has maintained his innocence during the polygraph test.

His counsel also claimed that Roy had gone to the floor where the seminar hall of the RG Kar Hospital is located to find out the health condition of his friend's father who was operated on that day. “He went to the pulmonary department which is on the same floor where the seminar hall is situated. It was then when he saw the woman lying there,” she said.

The body of the post-graduate trainee, who was allegedly raped and murdered, was found in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9. Roy, a civic volunteer of the Kolkata Police, was arrested the next day. The gruesome crime resulted in nationwide protests by doctors and citizens.