18 days of grilling, 2 polygraph test: RG Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh claims 'he wasn't aware of doctor’s death' until police lodged complaint

Kolkata: Former R G Kar principal Sandip Ghosh has claimed that he came to know of the death of the PGT doctor around 10.20 am on Aug 9, almost 50 minutes after a first-year PGT student saw the victim lying in the seminar hall around 9.30 am and 10 minutes after cops at the R G Kar police outpost had dialled Tala police station. GD number 542 at Tala PS was registered at 10.10 am.

Ghosh has steadfastly stuck to the timeline for the past 18 days while being questioned first by Kolkata Police and then the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He has also undergone two polygraph tests.

According to Ghosh, Sumit Roy Tapadar, the associate professor of respiratory medicine at R G Kar, had called him on his mobile phone at 10 am. However, he reportedly could not take the call as he was in the shower. Ghosh said he had called Tapadar back around 10.20 am and that is when he first learnt about the PGT doctor's death. He has maintained that thereafter, he had rushed to the hospital, calling several people at the hospital and the OC of Tala police station on the way. However, only the OC had reportedly responded to the call at 10.30 am and told Ghosh he was already aware of the incident.

The others that Ghosh had dialled were MSVP Sanjay Vasisht, Rogi Kalyan Samiti chairman Sudipto Roy and chest medicine HoD Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury. Ghosh claimed he had asked the OC to secure the incident spot. According to the former principal, he had reached the hospital around 11 am.

What the investigators are also curious about is the presence of several people who are not related to RG Kar but known to Ghosh who were present at the hospital that day. All of them had reached the hospital before the victim's parents received a call from the hospital informing them that their daughter had died by 'suicide'. The sleuths want to know who informed them of the incident and who had instructed the caller to say so.

The CBI is now looking into why Ghosh was absent when the police reached R G Kar Hospital. Besides studying Ghosh's call details, the investigators are speaking to the hospital administrative officer. The CBI may undertake a few more polygraph tests.

With chief accused Sanjay Roy not providing any leads on the role of the administrators, the central agency is questioning even security guards on duty at gates on the morning of Aug 9.

Two of them underwent polygraph tests earlier this week.