CBI raids house of RG Kar ex-principal Sandip Ghosh, 13 other locations

KOLKATA: The High Court-ordered CBI probe into alleged corruption at Kolkata's RG Kar hospital took off Sunday with the agency conducting coordinated raids on 14 locations that included former principal Sandip Ghosh's house and premises belonging to some health department officials and at least two vendors.
CBI's FIR against Ghosh, filed the previous evening, names a woman identified as Khoma Louha, who runs an eatery registered as Eshan Cafe on campus, and another firm, Ma Tara Traders.A CBI team scanned computers in RG Kar administrative block where former MS & vice-principal Sanjay Vashishth had an office. They quizzed several officials, including Vashishth's successor Saptarshi Chatterjee.
A member of the CBI team said the search yielded “a lot of things”, but didn’t elaborate.
The CBI action started at 6.45am when officers from the anti-corruption branch reached ex-principal Ghosh’s fourstorey home in central Kolkata's Beliaghata.
Ghosh, who faced CBI interrogation for nine consecutive days and a polygraph test, did not immediately respond to knocks on his door and calls on his mobile phone, officials said.
Some members of the CBI team visited Beliaghata police station to ask about Ghosh’s whereabouts. It was only 70- odd minutes later that Ghosh opened the door to let the team in, the agency said. By then, a crowd had gathered outside.
Ghosh’s interrogation and the search of his home continued until late evening.
Another CBI team visited Vashisth’s home in south Kolkata’s Entally. After they started questioning him, some officers drove to his other home in Tangra, the area famous for tanneries and Chinese eateries.
Vashisth has already been interrogated by the special crime branch of the agency in the rape-murder case. There was also a CBI search at the Kestopur home of Debashish Som, the former forensic medicine demonstrator at RG Kar. Som, once known to be close to Ghosh, was later taken to CBI’s office in Nizam Palace.
Two hospital vendors were questioned, too. In Howrah, a CBI team reached the office of medical equipment supplier Biplab Sinha, owner of Tara Ma Traders. At Tallah, they raided cafe owner Khoma’s house and took her husband Chandan Louha, who is a school employee, to an undisclosed location for nearly an hour.
Ghosh is likely to move a regular bench on Monday, questioning if a CBI probe could be ordered without the court giving him a hearing.