Who Is Sandip Ghosh, The Former Principal Of RG Kar Medical College, And Why Is He So Powerful?

The macabre crime inside the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in the early hours of 9 August has generated shockwaves across the country and even the world. 

What has also evoked disgust and outrage is the role of Sandip Ghosh, the controversial former principal of the government-run medical college. 

Ghosh, it is widely believed, initiated an attempted cover-up of the horrific crime and tried to allegedly shame the victim by asking what she was doing in the seminar room of the healthcare facility where her body was discovered. 

The parents of the victim were first informed, allegedly on Ghosh’s instructions, that their daughter had fallen ill. That too, at least five hours after her body was discovered. 

Half an hour later, they were informed that their daughter had committed suicide. They rushed to the hospital but were ill-treated and kept waiting for over three hours before being allowed to see the body of their daughter. 

Doctors and forensic experts who saw the body told Swarajya that there was no way anyone could not have concluded, even by viewing the body, that the victim was murdered. Why, then, did the authorities of the medical college inform the parents that their daughter had died by suicide?

The parents of the victim said that an autopsy and post-mortem were conducted hurriedly, and they were forced to cremate the body the same day. The autopsy revealed that the victim was also raped. 

Why was the body, then, not preserved for another autopsy? 

Usually, the bodies of rape-murder victims are preserved for a second or even third autopsy because of medico-legal implications and procedures. And why the tearing hurry to cremate the body? Why did the police allegedly put pressure on the parents of the victim to cremate the body that same day?

Ghosh also failed to lodge an FIR (first information report) with the police. As head of the institution where a heinous crime had taken place, it was his responsibility to lodge an FIR soon after the body of the victim was discovered. Additionally, Ghosh is also accused of disclosing the identity of the victim.

Ghosh had a very unsavoury reputation among students, interns, and junior doctors of the medical college, as well as among his senior colleagues. He was, as many doctors told Swarajya, widely disliked. 

There have been serious allegations of corruption and various misdemeanours against Ghosh in the past. He had also faced protests from students and teachers at the medical college in the past. 

Ghosh has been accused of being involved in rackets like syphoning off subsidised medicines and medical supplies meant for patients, granting admissions to patients in lieu of handsome sums of money, and taking huge amounts from students to get them good marks in examinations. 

His colleagues accuse Ghosh of being abrasive and playing favourites. He had, allegedly, been showering undue favours on students, interns, and junior doctors affiliated with the Trinamool Congress’ students’ wing and victimising those who did not toe his line or were critical of the ruling party. 

Like all government-run healthcare facilities in Bengal, the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital had also descended into a deep rot. Ghosh, junior doctors of the college told Swarajya, only made it worse. 

A cabal of touts headed by civic police ‘volunteer’ Sanjay Roy (the prime accused in the rape-murder) had held the hospital to ransom and was more powerful than even senior doctors. These touts, like those in other government-run hospitals, used to take large sums of money from patients for admission, allotment of beds, supply of medicines, medical tests, surgeries, and other procedures. 

Ghosh, it is alleged, was the chief patron of this cabal of touts and used to protect them. Doctors at RG Kar told Swarajya that there is no way that the cabal of touts could have operated with such impunity without the patronage and active connivance of the college and hospital authorities.

The plethora of complaints and allegations against Ghosh led to his transfer out of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital twice in recent years. But each time, he managed to get his transfer orders rescinded. 

Even after he caved in to intense criticism and resigned from the post of principal of RG Kar earlier last week, he was re-appointed as the principal of the state-run Chittaranjan Medical College & Hospital within four hours. 

That triggered intense protests by the students and junior doctors of Chittaranjan and widespread criticism of the government’s move. 

The Trinamool Congress leadership deputed two senior leaders of the party — one a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) and the other a minister — to intervene in Ghosh’s favour with agitating Chittaranjan Medical College & Hospital students and junior doctors. They urged the students not to oppose Ghosh’s appointment. But the two were met with vociferous ‘go back’ slogans. 

The Calcutta High Court censured Ghosh and ordered that he go on a long leave. The Mamata Banerjee government then had no option but to follow the High Court’s orders and send Ghosh on leave.

Ghosh is reported to have been the primary player in a group of doctors and students owing allegiance to a powerful Trinamool legislator who is also a physician. This faction was opposed to another group headed by a former Trinamool MP whose daughter had been a student at RG Kar. 

The power play between the two Trinamool Congress factions in RG Kar had hampered the functioning of the healthcare facility, senior doctors told Swarajya.

But what made Ghosh so powerful? Senior doctors at RG Kar told Swarajya that Ghosh had close links with the top echelons of the Trinamool Congress leadership. 

“He had direct access to the ruling party’s top leadership and could call up and speak to ministers and top bureaucrats of the health department whenever he wanted to. I have seen powerful ministers deferring to him and bureaucrats calling him ‘sir’. He was extremely powerful, and we heard he had close family ties with someone in the top ranks of the Trinamool Congress,” a senior doctor who heads a department at RG Kar told Swarajya. 

Ghosh always used his connections for his own advantage, never for the welfare of the college or to help students, junior doctors, or his colleagues. 

His abrasive behaviour towards his colleagues, mistreatment of junior doctors and students, his biased conduct towards students and junior doctors affiliated with the ruling party, and his many acts of omission and alleged corruption had made him an intensely disliked figure in the premier medical college and hospital. 

His alleged attempts to cover up the rape and murder and shame the victim came as the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. All the pent-up anger against him for his alleged corruption and misconduct burst forth and ensured his unceremonious exit from RG Kar Medical College & Hospital.