The Supreme Court has rejected the petition of former principal of Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College Sandip Ghosh. Ghosh had said that the Calcutta High Court did not hear his side before handing over the corruption investigation to the CBI. The high court also made a comment unnecessarily linking the rape incident in the hospital to corruption, he pleaded in the SC.
Ghosh's plea was heard by a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra.
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Meenakshi Arora, the lawyer appearing for Ghosh, had demanded that the investigation of corruption related to biomedical waste be separated from the investigation of the rape and murder of a junior doctor on August 9. "There is an allegation of financial irregularity but to connect him with the RG Kar rape and murder by the CBI is a huge travesty of justice," Arora was quoted as submitting by legal news website Bar and Bench.
The HC order was passed based on a PIL filed by an ex-employee of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Akhtar Ali. Arora said that three of Ali's PILs on the same issue were dismissed. "When the petition itself limits to the issue of biomedical waste, does not say about any nexus with this particular incident, could the High Court have passed the order with the observations," Arora was quoted as saying by legal news website Live Law.
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However, rejecting the plea, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said: "We will not tell the CBI how to investigate. The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI investigation on a PIL. It was not necessary to hear your side." "Let us not stultify the investigation. We are also asking the CBI to file status reports before us," he said.
Although Sandip Ghosh was arrested by the CBI in the corruption case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), too, seems to be inquiring into the matter. On Friday morning, ED officials were seen outside Ghosh's Beleghata home in Kolkata. Ghosh's home was among six locations in Kolkata where the ED is conducting raids.
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