Kolkata, Jan 31 (IANS): A special court on Friday fixed February 4 for the process of framing of charges in the case of multi-crore financial irregularities at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.
The date of framing of charges was intimated by the judge of the special court during a hearing in the matter.
All the five accused individuals in the case will have to be physically present at the court on that day, the judge directed.
After the process of framing of charges is done, the trial process in the matter will begin at the same court.
Apart from R.G. Kar's former principal Sandip Ghosh, the four other individuals named as accused in the case are his assistant-cum-bodyguard Afsar Ali, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra and junior doctor Ashish Pandey. All of them are in judicial custody now.
On January 28, the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the case, to complete the process of charge framing against the five accused individuals by February 6.
Justice Ghosh gave the order after the CBI informed the court that they had received the required no-objection certificate from the state government on this count.
On Friday morning, Ghosh’s counsel made a last attempt to get some more time to study the matter before the charge framing and approached Justice Ghosh’s bench for additional time. However, the petition was summarily rejected by Justice Ghosh, who also observed that there had been a systemic delay in the beginning of the trial process.
Justice Ghosh also observed that despite CBI filing a charge sheet in the matter in November last year, there had been a delay in the beginning of the trial process.
Initially, the process of framing of charges against Ghosh could not be started because of the non-availability of a no-objection certificate from the state government, which is mandatory for framing of charges and the beginning of the trial process against any state government employee.