Kolkata: A special CBI court in Kolkata on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Akhtar Ali, the first whistleblower in the multi-crore financial irregularities case at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, which also came under national focus after the brutal rape and murder of a woman junior doctor on its premises in August 2024.
Ali, the former Deputy Superintendent of R.G. Kar, was the first one to raise an alarm over the involvement of former and controversial R.G. Kar principal Sandip Ghosh in the financial irregularities case at the state-run medical college and hospital.
In fact, based on his petition, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe into the case of R.G. Kar’s financial irregularities. Later, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also started a parallel probe into the matter.
However, Ali’s whistleblower image received a setback when the CBI submitted a supplementary chargesheet in the matter in December last year, in which it named Ali as a co-accused.
Thereafter, Ali refrained from personally appearing at the special court several times, following which the court issued an arrest warrant against him on Friday.
On Friday, Ali’s counsel informed the court that his client was not refraining from physical appearance deliberately, but because he was undergoing treatment at the hospital. But that argument could not satisfy the court, and instead accepted the argument of the CBI counsel that Ali was using his physical ailment as an excuse to avoid appearing at the court.
Last year, Ali submitted his letter of resignation from service, which was not accepted, and instead, the West Bengal Health Department suspended him.
The Health Department issued a notification explaining the suspension, saying the CBI was probing financial irregularities at R. G. Kar on the orders of the Calcutta High Court and that Ali’s role surfaced during the investigation.
As the Assistant Superintendent of R.G. Kar, Ali supervised the procurement of essential equipment for the hospital; later, as Deputy Superintendent, he allegedly exerted influence over these matters, the Health Department said.
According to sources, the Health Department claimed that Ali demanded lakhs of rupees in exchange for granting business opportunities to companies supplying hospital equipment.
Between 2020 and 2022, Rs 2,39,000 were reportedly deposited in Ali’s account, and Rs 50,000 were credited to his wife’s account.
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Photo source: IANS
–IANS
