Kolkata: Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Thursday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to form an independent medical board to ascertain whether Sujay Krishna Bhadra, a prime accused in the West Bengal school job case, at all requires a bypass surgery or not.
The ED will have to update the court in the matter by next Wednesday. In case of emergency, the state-run SSKM Medical College and Hospital will be consulted, Justice Ghosh ordered on Thursday.
Earlier, the court had rejected Bhadra’s bail plea on grounds of getting the surgery done at a private hospital instead of SSKM where he is now admitted. However, the court was keen on getting an answer on why he was so keen in getting his operation at a particular private hospital.
On Thursday, Justice Ghosh observed that even without being released on bail, Bhadra’s treatment can continue. According to him, if he is released on bail for treatment purposes only, it would send a wrong signal to the remaining inmates.
On the direction of forming a medical board, Bhadra’s counsel Kishor Dutta requested for forming the same by Friday. Substantiating his point, Dutta mentioned how the medical board was formed within a few hours in case of the treatment of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
However, Justice Ghosh rejected the plea and said that the matter of Bhadra cannot be equated with that of the chief minister. Justice Ghosh reminded the rich history of SSKM’s medical excellence. “There are highly qualified expert physicians there who can make decisions,” he observed.
(IANS)
