HC rejects Sandip Ghosh’s plea for more time before charge framing

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the plea of Sandip Ghosh, ex-principal of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, seeking more time before charges are framed against him by the trial court in the alleged financial irregularities case.

The bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh was moved by Sandip’s counsel on Friday. He prayed for modification of the previous order by the bench which directed the trial court to consider the materials submitted by the CBI in the alleged financial irregularities case so charges can be framed in a week and the trial can start as soon as possible.

Pointing out that the trial court has show-caused CBI for not informing it about the sanction for prosecution obtained from state government against Sandip Ghosh, his counsel said the CBI did not apprise the high court bench that 207 CrPC was not complied with. This CrPC section requires a magistrate to provide the accused with copies of certain documents which the prosecution has relied upon.

The counsel said there are about ten volumes containing thousands of pages of documents while the charge sheet itself is 40 pages long. He said Ghosh, being an accused, is in jail. “How are we to go through these documents in such a short time?” the counsel asked. It was added that though the high court gave seven day time, CBI wants the charge framing process to begin in the next three days. Considering that chargesheet was filed in November 2024 and yet nothing could be started as CBI had to wait for the state’s sanction for prosecution against Ghosh, the court observed that there has been a “systematic delay” in starting the trial. It was on January 28 that CBI received the sanction.

Meanwhile, the special CBI court on Thursday show-caused CBI for the delay in informing the trial court about the sanction. The agency was again accosted on Friday by trial court for not bringing all relevant documents. The court said charge framing against all five, including Ghosh, will take place on coming Tuesday.

CBI has named five persons in charge sheet. Besides Ghosh, his assistant cum bodyguard Afsar Ali, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra and a junior doctor Ashish Pandey were named. All are in judicial custody.