RG Kar case: After arrest by CBI, Bengal health ministry suspends ex-Principal Sandip Ghosh

The CBI had sought 10-day custody for him but was granted eight days of remand.

Besides Ghosh, three others have been arrested by the central probe agency including vendors Biplav Singha and Suman Hazara, who supplied medicine to the hospital, and Afsar Ali, a security guard.

Earlier in the day, as Sandip Ghosh was leaving the court with CBI officials towards the car, TV visuals showed him getting slapped by one of the protesters who had gathered outside the premises.

Before being arrested, Ghosh had been summoned to the CGO complex almost every day ever since the CBI investigated the horrific incident.

On Monday, as the news of his arrest spread, the protesting junior doctors were seen celebrating in Kolkata.

According to reports, he has been arrested by the CBI's anti-corruption branch over the financial irregularities and corruption charges at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital during his tenure as the principal of the facility.

The financial irregularities case against him was enforced following a petition by former Deputy Superintendent of RG Kar Hospital Akhtar Ali.

He had accused Sandip Ghosh of illegal sale of unclaimed corpses, trafficking of biomedical waste, and passing tenders against the commission paid by medicine and medical equipment suppliers.

He also alleged that students were pressured to pay up to Rs. 8 lakh to pass exams.

The Supreme Court as well as the Calcutta High Court has repeatedly questioned why Ghosh, being the principal of the medical college when the brutal crime took place, did not lodge a police complaint.

Ghosh, who faced the ire for alleged mismanagement and financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, resigned from his post facing protests from the medical students.

Though he had resigned, the Mamata Banerjee government had controversially appointed him to a similar post at Calcutta National Medical College within a few hours.

The Indian Medical Association had already suspended Ghosh and his appointment to premier Calcutta National Medical College was also taken down after the Mamata Banerjee government received massive flak over the same with even the High Courts and the Supreme Court questioning the same.

The financial irregularities case was handed to the CBI by the Calcutta High Court as a parallel investigation. The agency primarily flew to Kolkata to probe the rape-murder case on the instructions of the High Court.

The key suspect in the rape and murder case of the junior doctor so far has been identified as Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, who was seen on the hospital's CCTV near the crime scene.

Sanjay Roy, Sandeep Ghosh, and some doctors whose fingerprints were taken from the seminar hall, where the junior doctor's body was found, have been made to undergo polygraph tests.

The CCTV footage shows Sanjay Roy entering the hospital at 1.03 on the fateful night when the incident took place, media reports said.

During interrogation, the police had shown him the CCTV evidence, after which Sanjay Roy admitted to the crime, media reports said.

On Tuesday, people from diverse backgrounds joined healthcare professionals in forming a human chain along a 14 km long stretch of Kolkata demanding justice for RG Kar victim.