Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the plea of the former principal of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, seeking additional time before the process of framing of charges against him starts in connection with the financial irregularities in the institute.
On January 28, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the process of charge-framing in the case by February 6 following which the trial could start.
However, on Friday, Ghosh’s counsel filed a petition at the same single-judge bench seeking additional time before the beginning of the trial process.
However, Justice Ghosh rejected the petition and observed that there had been a systematic delay in the beginning of the trial process in the matter.
Justice Ghosh also observed that despite CBI filing a chargesheet in November last year, there had been a delay in the beginning of the trial process.
Initially, the process of framing a charge against Ghosh could not be started because of the non-availability of a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state government, which is mandatory for charge-framing and the beginning of the trial process against any state government employee.
However, on January 28, the CBI counsel informed Justice Ghosh’s bench that finally they secured the NOC from the state government, which cleared the decks for completing the process of charge framing and the beginning of the trial process.
Thereafter, Justice Ghosh directed CBI to complete the process of charge framing by February 6.
Besides CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also conducting a parallel probe in the case of financial irregularities at R. G. Kar.
While CBI started its investigation following an order by the Calcutta High Court, ED made a suo motu entry to investigate the money laundering angle after filing an enforcement case information report (ECIR).
Altogether five persons, including Ghosh, his assistant-cum- bodyguard Afsar Alir, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra and a junior doctor Ashish Pandey, have been named by CBI in its chargesheet. All of them are in judicial custody now.
(IANS)
