The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), investigating financial irregularities at the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, has uncovered crucial evidence of expired medicines being circulated under new packaging within the facility, reported IANS.
According to sources involved in the investigation, the scheme was masterminded by Dr Sandip Ghosh, the former and controversial principal of RG Kar.
The scam was facilitated in collaboration with a group of retail distributors, who were close confidants of Dr Ghosh. Instead of destroying expired medicines, they were sent back to these distributors, who rewrapped them in fresh packaging with new expiry dates.
These repackaged expired medicines were then resold to RG Kar Medical College, with Dr Ghosh earning significant commissions from this fraudulent operation. This practice was particularly rampant with high-priced tablets used in the Chest Medicine Department, IANS added.
The investigation has also brought attention to the tragic case of a woman doctor from the Chest Medicine Department, who was raped and murdered in August this year.
Witnesses have informed officials that the victim had been vocal about the substandard quality of medicines being supplied to her department. The CBI is now exploring whether her objections to the medicines could have any connection to the brutal crime.
The CBI is conducting two separate investigations: One into the financial irregularities involving Dr Ghosh, and the other into the rape and murder case. Both Dr Ghosh and former Tala Police Station Station House Officer (SHO) Abhijit Mondal are facing charges of obstructing the investigation and tampering with evidence in the rape and murder case.
