Kolkata, Feb 10 (PTI) Akhtar Ali, a former deputy superintendent at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, surrendered before a special CBI court here on Tuesday and was remanded to judicial custody till February 17.
Ali’s bail prayer claiming illness was not allowed by the court.
The former official of the state-run hospital, where a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered in August 2024 leading to nationwide furore, surrendered before the special CBI court judge at Alipore.
The CBI opposed Ali’s bail plea and prayed for his remand. The Judge, upon hearing both parties, remanded Ali to judicial custody till February 17.
The court had on February 6 issued a non-bailable warrant against Ali in connection with a case of financial irregularities at the state-run facility, after the Calcutta High Court rejected his anticipatory bail prayer.
Ali’s lawyer has claimed that he is the whistleblower in the alleged corruption case at the hospital and was therefore being targeted by certain interested elements.
The deputy superintendent (non-medical) of the medical college has been accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of having indulged in illegalities in the tender process during the relevant period.
Ali had alleged financial irregularities at R G Medical College and Hospital during the tenure of the then principal Sandip Ghosh, and on a petition by him, the high court had ordered a CBI probe into the alleged graft. This petition was filed after the R G Kar rape-murder crime took place.
The CBI arrested Ghosh and two others in connection with the alleged financial irregularities at the hospital.
Claiming that Ali was taking care of the tender process then, the CBI has accused him of taking money for awarding contracts to certain vendors.
The central probe agency maintained that the petitioner stands on a similar footing as that of principal accused Sandip Ghosh, who has been in custody for nearly one and a half years.
The CBI has also sought to dent Ali’s claim of being the whistleblower in the alleged financial irregularities, maintaining that the criminal case that led to the exposure of illegalities claimed to have been committed by co-accused Ghosh was started by some other person.
The agency had further claimed before the high court that it was only after Ali fell out with the co-accused that he started to make complaints against Ghosh. PTI AMR NN
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