Kolkata, Oct 7 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday got permission from a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata to question the accused persons in the case of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata include its former, controversial Principal Sandip Ghosh.

So far five persons have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case including Ghosh.

The other four are Ashish Pandey, Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra, and Biplab Sinha.

Pandey was a Ghosh confidant and staffer at the R.G. Kar who has been recently expelled by the hospital authorities. While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors supplying medical equipment to R.G Kar when Ghosh was at the helm of affairs.

The CBI and the ED are conducting parallel probes in the financial irregularities case.

While the CBI’s probe was court-directed and court-monitored, the ED has made a suo motu entry in the matter after filing an enforcement case information report (ECIR).

Sources aware of the development said that questioning of Ghosh and other arrested accused has become imperative for the ED officials who have secured some crucial evidence as regards the money laundering angle, especially the involvement of a number of shell companies to influence the tendering processes at RG Kar and huge assets disproportionate to income of the accused persons, especially Ghosh.

Recently, four-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Serampore in Hooghly district, Dr Sudipto Roy, who is also a medical professional, came under the scanner of the ED in the matter. Besides questioning him at its Salt Lake office, the ED officials also conducted raids and search operations at his residence and nursing home in north Kolkata.

Besides being a four-time party legislator, Roy occupies other important positions like the Chairman of the patients’ welfare committee of R.G. Kar, a member of the West Bengal Medical Recruitment Board, and the President of the West Bengal Medical Council.