RG Kar case: Sandip Ghosh unethically included himself in complaints panel

Kolkata: The former and controversial principal of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, Sandip Ghosh unethically included his name in the last Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the hospital formed in 2021.

Sources said that as per protocol, the ICC, which is a body that handles complaints of sexual harassment and other types of discrimination in the workplace, has to be headed by a senior woman doctor of the hospital.

The protocol also demands that for the sake of transparency and neutrality in the functioning of ICC, neither the principal nor the medical superintendent and vice-principal (MSVP) should be a member of the said committee.

However, the committee at R.G. Kar formed in 2021 and headed by a woman professor attached to the pathology department of the hospital had the names of both Ghosh and the MSVP Sanjay Vashisth as members of the 14-member committee.

Ghosh’s wife Sangeeta Ghosh was also included as a member of the committee.

There had been complaints against the said committee by a section of the junior doctors of unnecessarily sending notices to those who were not in the good books of Ghosh and harassing them over false complaints of sexual harassment.

Sources said that such a blatant violation of protocol was totally ignored by the state health department.

On Tuesday, a special court in Kolkata extended, by three days, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody for Ghosh and the former SHO of Tala Police Station for further interrogation in the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar within the hospital premises last month.

The main charges against both of them were misleading the initial investigation carried out by Kolkata Police before the charge of the probe was handed over to CBI by Calcutta High Court and tampering of evidence after the body of the junior doctor was recovered from the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9 morning.