RG Kar rape-murder: What ex-principal Sandip Ghosh told CBI over 14 days of grilling

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has questioned Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar Medical College, for 14 days on the trot, reportedly totalling over 140 hours.

On Friday (August 31), he was summoned for the 14th consecutive day for questioning in connection with the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor on August 9. Before that, he was questioned by Kolkata Police and he has also undergone two polygraph tests, popularly called lie-detector tests.

Ghosh has reportedly stuck to his version of the timeline steadfastly throughout the questioning. So far, this is what his grilling has thrown up, according to a report in TOI.

Received information at 10.20 am

According to Ghosh, he came to know of the doctor’s death around 10.20 am on August 9. He reportedly told the investigators that Sumit Roy Tapadar, associate professor of the chest medicine department at RG Kar hospital, in which the deceased doctor worked as well, had called him on his mobile phone at 10 am. However, he was in the shower and could not take the call.

Ghosh reportedly told the sleuths that he called Tapadar back around 10.20 am and learnt about the doctor’s death.

It is noteworthy that the doctor’s body was discovered in the seminar hall by a first-year PGT student around 9.30 am. The policemen at the RG Kar hospital outpost dialled Tala police station at 10.10 am, which is the time mentioned on GD number 542.

Reached hospital at 11 am

Ghosh has maintained that once he got the news, he left for the hospital at once, calling several people from his mobile phone on the way. One of those he called was the OC of Tala police station, the only person who reportedly took his call — at 10.30 am — and told him he was aware of the incident. Ghosh has reportedly claimed that he had asked the OC to secure the crime scene.

The others that Ghosh had called, but who did not answer, were the head of the chest medicine department, Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury, Medical Superintendent-cum-Vice-Principal Sanjay Vasisht, and Rogi Kalyan Samiti chairman Sudipto Roy.

Ghosh has reportedly claimed to the sleuths that he reached the hospital only around 11 am. That was half an hour after the police reached the crime scene, as submitted by Kolkata Police in the Supreme Court.

What CBI is focusing on

The CBI is now reportedly focusing on verifying Ghosh’s statement and trying to confirm why he was absent when the police reached the hospital. The investigators are studying Ghosh’s call details and speaking to the hospital’s administrative officer. The agency may reportedly conduct some more polygraph tests.

Prime accused Sanjay Roy — the only person to be arrested so far — has reportedly not provided any leads on the role of the medical college and hospital administrators in the incident. The CBI is reportedly also questioning the security guards who were on duty at the gates on August 9 morning. Two of them have already undergone polygraph tests earlier this week.

Another thing the sleuths are reportedly focusing on is the presence of several people not related to the hospital at the crime scene that day. They are all known to Ghosh and all of them had reached the hospital even before the deceased doctor’s parents received a call from the hospital about her death. The CBI is reportedly investigating who informed them about the death and who told the caller to tell the parents that she had died by “suicide”.

Besides the gruesome crime, Ghosh is also under the agency’s lens in the financial misconduct case at the hospital in which the sleuths have already registered an FIR against him and other entities.