RG Kar financial scam: Ashish Pandey to be produced in court today

Kolkata, Oct 4 (IANS) Arrested Trinamool Congress leader and RG Kar staff Ashish Pandey, for his alleged involvement in tender irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, will be produced in a special court here by CBI on Friday afternoon.Sources aware of the development said that Pandey, known to be a close confidant of the former and controversial Principal of RG Kar, Sandip Ghosh, used his contacts in the ruling dispensation to ensure that the award of contracts for the supply of medical equipment to the hospital or work-orders for carrying out infrastructure development activities there were granted only to choicest contractors of Ghosh.Sources added that when Pandey was being questioned before his arrest on Thursday evening and during those interrogations, he made a constant attempt to mislead the interrogating officials in the matter, following which, the CBI officials finally decided to take him into custody.

It is learnt that besides his involvement in the financial irregularities, there had been several complaints against Pandey of being one of the main brains behind running the “threat culture” at RG Kar.

Pandey will be presented at a special court in Kolkata on Friday afternoon and sources said that the CBI counsel will seek his custody for the purpose of further interrogationFormer Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member, Santanu Sen, who too is a medical practitioner in private life, claimed that it is high time people like Ashish Pandey, who are maligning the party from the inside through such nefarious activities, be identified and disciplinary actions taken against them.“At the same time, those who are patronising and backing such people should also be identified and dealt with strongly,” Sen added.Pandey is the fifth person to be arrested by the CBI in connection with the financial irregularities at RG Kar Hospital. Earlier, in September, Ghosh and three others were arrested in the same case.

The other three arrests made in this connection are Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha.While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors who were looking into the supply of medical equipment to RG Kar when Sandip Ghosh was the Principal there.