RG Kar issue: Orthopedic Association terminates membership of Sandip Ghosh

Kolkata, Sep 3: A prominent doctor’s body, the West Bengal Orthopedic Association (WBOA), on Tuesday, terminated the membership of Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Ghosh was arrested by the CBI on Monday evening in connection with the case of financial irregularities in the hospital.

On August 18, the doctor’s body announced its decision to keep Ghosh aside from all sorts of “academic activities under the banner” of the association. And, now with his arrest, the association has decided to terminate his membership. In the meantime, the state unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also requested the association's central governing council to terminate Ghosh’s membership in the association.

On August 28, the IMA announced its decision to suspend Ghosh’s membership. On that day, a communication was sent to Ghosh informing him about the decision of the IMA disciplinary committee to suspend him. In the communique, the IMA mentioned the “nature of disrepute” brought by Ghosh to the professional as a whole. There had been several complaints about financial irregularities at R.G. Kar when Ghosh was at the helm of affairs there as the principal.

The charges include tendering of different contracts to private and outsourced parties without getting the necessary approval from the state health department and the college council getting the infrastructure related task of the hospital done by private outsourced entities or individuals instead of following the standard practice of getting them done by the state public works department (PWD) and selling biomedical wastes of the hospital, including organs of the unidentified bodies coming to the hospital mortuary for post-mortem purposes outside.

Ghosh and three others arrested by the CBI on Monday night will be presented at a special court in Kolkata on Tuesday. The three arrested persons are Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha. While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors supplying medical equipment to R.G Kar when Ghosh was at the helm of affairs.