NEW DELHI: CBI Tuesday informed SC that a request for sanction to prosecute Sandip Ghosh, former principal of R G Kar Medical College & Hospital, and Dr Ashish Kumar Pandey, is pending with Bengal governmentt since November 27, though the chargesheet against them was filed two days later.
For CBI, SG Tushar Mehta submitted the probe status report related to alleged financial irregularities in the Kolkata hospital, which came to light after the gruesome rape-murder of a doctor within its premises on Aug 9. SC took suo motu cognisance of the case on Aug 18. CBI has already chargesheeted Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, for rape-murder.
Mehta said though trial against the main accused in the rape-murder case has been filed, CBI is likely to file a supplementary chargesheet after completing its probe into alleged destruction of evidence by hospital authorities in the immediate aftermath of the incident, which sparked nationwide strike by doctors.
A bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar asked Mehta whether the chargesheet in the financial irregularities case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been filed before the same sessions court where the earlier chargesheet was lodged in the rape-murder incident. Mehta said it was filed before a CBI court, which is different from the court conducting the trial into the rape-murder incident. He said the financial irregularities chargesheet was filed on Nov 29, but the agency had sought sanction for prosecution from West Bengal government on November 27.
Appearing for the state, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said, “We have received no such communication.” Mehta said the senior advocate may not be aware of this as the request for sanctions to prosecute Ghosh and Pandey had been sent to the authority concerned in the state government on November 27.
The bench asked the state to expeditiously process the request for grant of sanction to prosecute. Senior advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the parents of the rape-murder victim, informed the court that the trial in the case is proceeding on a day-today basis and as many as 43 of the 51 prosecution witnesses have been examined. Mehta said the examination of prosecution witnesses is expected to be completed next week, and the trial would conclude soon.