RG Kar rape-murder: CBI quizzes TMC MLA and North Bengal lobby member

KOLKATA: The CBI on Thursday questioned Trinamool Congress MLA Sudipto Roy, a prominent face of the 'North Bengal lobby' that has been accused in running a health syndicate after the rape and murder of the doctor of R G Kar Medical College.

Roy is also the chairman of the Patient Welfare Committee (Rogi Kalyan Samiti) of the R G Kar Medical College. The agency also reached his nursing home at Belgharia.

In the afternoon, a team of CBI officials reached the Sinthee residence of Roy and started questioning him. Roy, who is president of the RG Kar Patient Welfare Committee, said he has cooperated with the sleuths. According to CBI sources, Roy had received a call from Sandip Ghosh a little after 10 am on Aug 9, informing him about the incident at the medical college. Roy had, after the incident, told mediapersons that it was a case of unnatural death.

When CBI officials asked Roy about what made him conclude that it was an unnatural death, he said that he could not say anything other than that before the post-mortem was conducted. Roy claimed he was speechless after hearing about the incident. There had also been allegations against Roy of swapping new machines at RG Kar with old ones from his own nursing home.

Roy was elected as the president of West Bengal Medical Council in Nov 2022. The election itself was embroiled in controversy with various doctor organisations - IMA, Joint Platform of Doctors, Service Doctors' Forum - alleging mass rigging. The medical fraternity has also been accusing the office of the council as the origin point of corruption in the health department.

Roy is also the chairperson of the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board, which also has been mired in controversy of corruption and irregularities. "CBI investigators had come to question me regarding the investigation into the death of a student at R G Kar last month. I cooperated with them," Roy said.

"It is impossible to swap machines. The models are different and it can be inspected anytime. I worked hard to set up this nursing home," Roy added.

A prominent face of the 'North Bengal lobby' that has been accused of running a health syndicate, skeletons of alleged misconduct have been emerging out against him. He is known to be close to Ghosh and juniors like Avik De and Birupaksha Biswas. "I am not sure if Birupaksha and Avik were present at the spot. However, there were many doctors and political leaders who visited the hospital on that day," said Roy.

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