Mass insult: Former headmaster Sandip Ghosh from Calcutta in court

Sandip Ghosh was produced before a court in Calcutta yesterday and sentenced to eight days' remand.

Calcutta:

The former principal of Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where a 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered, was verbally attacked by an angry mob near a Kolkata court yesterday. A man in the crowd also tried to slap Dr Sandip Ghosh as security personnel escorted him safely to a vehicle.

Dr. Ghosh is under fire for the hospital administration's response after a night shift doctor was found dead in a seminar hall on the morning of August 9. The doctor's rape and murder has sparked nationwide outrage. The former director was arrested by the CBI's Anti-Corruption Wing on Monday evening on charges of corruption and financial malpractice at the government hospital. He was produced in court yesterday and remanded in custody for 8 days. The case will be heard again on September 10.

Amid the outrage following the heinous crime, Dr Ghosh had resigned as the principal of RG Kar Medical College, saying he “could not bear the humiliation on social media”. Hours later, the West Bengal government appointed him as the principal of another medical college in Kolkata – a move that was heavily criticised. The Mamata Banerjee government has now suspended him for alleged financial misconduct. A state police probe against him has been handed over to the CBI on the orders of the Kolkata High Court.

A former colleague of Dr. Ghosh at RG Kar Medical College made numerous corruption allegations against him and approached the Supreme Court amid speculation that the alleged corruption was linked to the doctor's death.

Dr Ghosh has been heavily criticised by the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court over the hospital administration's response to the rape and murder of the doctor on its premises. “Why was the complaint filed almost 14 hours after the (body) was discovered? The most important thing is that the principal of the college should have immediately come to the college and arranged for the complaint to be filed,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said during the hearing of the case.

The high court had also questioned why the Calcutta police had to register a case of unnatural death when the hospital management had not filed a complaint. “When the deceased victim was a doctor working in the hospital, it is quite surprising why the director of the hospital did not file a formal complaint. This was, in our view, a serious error which gave rise to suspicion,” the court had said.

It also questioned the state government's “excessive urgency” in appointing Dr. Ghosh as the vice-chancellor of another university just hours after his resignation.