ED gets clues about questionable properties of Sandip Ghosh, wife

Kolkata, Sep 10 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing allegations of financial irregularities at the state-run R.G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has traced ‘questionable’ properties purchased by the controversial former principal of the institute, Sandip Ghosh, and his wife Sangeeta Ghosh.According to a statement issued by the probe agency on Tuesday, on September 6, the ED conducted search operations at seven premises, including the residences of Sandip Ghosh, his close relatives and associates, in connection with misappropriation of funds at R.G. Kar Medical College, which has been in the news ever since the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor on the hospital premises last month. As per the statement, during the search operations at Ghosh’s residence, the ED “seized various incriminating documents, documents related to properties acquired by Sandip Ghosh and his wife Sangeeta Ghosh, and digital devices”.During the search, it was unravelled that Sangeeta Ghosh had purchased two immovable properties without proper approval from the concerned authorities. ED officials are investigating the angle of assets disproportionate to income belonging to both Ghosh and his wife, including two residential flats close to R.G Kar, one residential flat in Murshidabad, and one luxurious multi-room farmhouse-cum-bungalow in South 24 Parganas district.Some of these properties were purchased during the period when Sandip Ghosh was the principal of R.G Kar Medical College.Both ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are conducting parallel investigations into the case of financial irregularities at R.G Kar. While, CBI’s is a court-monitored probe, ED has taken suo motu cognisance of the case by registering an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).The ED officials have already traced the involvement of multiple shell entities that were used to unethically bag tender-awards for supply of medical equipment or work-orders for infrastructure maintenance work at RG Kar, all during the period when Sandip Ghosh was at the helm of its affairs.Meanwhile, a special court in Kolkata on Tuesday sent Sandip Ghosh and three others to judicial custody till September 23 for their alleged involvement in the financial scam at R.G. Kar.The three others sent to judicial custody are Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra, and Biplab Sinha. While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors who supplied medical equipment to R.G. Kar when Ghosh was its principal.–IANSsrc/arm