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Journalism of Courage
An alumnus of the R G Kar Hospital and Medical College and once close to late Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and former Union Minister Ajit Panja, Sudipto Roy now finds himself under the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) scanner for alleged financial irregularities at the hospital.
The ED on Thursday summoned Roy, the TMC MLA from Serampore, for questioning in a money laundering case linked to the alleged irregularities. This came two days after the central agency searched the MLA’s residence. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already arrested R G Kar’s former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh and three of his suspected associates in the rape-murder case and alleged tampering of evidence. The ED case, filed under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from the CBI’s FIR.
On Thursday, before entering the ED office in Kolkata, Roy told reporters, “The ED went to my house based on the complaint of former deputy superintendent of R G Kar hospital Akhtar Ali. I have nothing to do with corruption. The ED called me, so I came.” Earlier this month, the CBI raided Roy’s residence in the R G Kar rape and murder case.
According to the West Bengal Department of Health, Roy has been one of the most influential figures in the state health sector over the last seven to eight years. A senior health official said, “You can understand how influential he is if you go through the positions he holds. He is the chairman of the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board although he had no qualifications to become the chairman (which requires administrative experience). To bring him into that position, the rules of the health recruitment board were changed.”
The official added, “Roy is also the president of the West Bengal Medical Council and holds the charges of the R G Kar’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti, or patient welfare committee, and the Calcutta Medical College’s patient welfare committee.”
The health official alleged Roy was part of a “lobby” in the state’s health system. “In what junior doctors call the ‘North Bengal lobby’, the two ‘Roy Bahadurs’ are the most influential. One is Sudipto Roy and another is Sushanta Roy (they are not related). Sudipto used to oversee the entire health system of South Bengal and is very close to the Chief Minister’s Office.”
Recently, the West Bengal Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that Roy had taken equipment from the R G Kar hospital to a nursing home. When asked about this, Roy said, “In 1984, I built a nursing home. I have built it gradually during the Left Front’s (tenure in power). Anyone can visit my nursing home and verify whether I have done such things or not.”
Roy, a doctor by training, started his political career in the Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Congress, in north Kolkata and became close to the then Congress leader Ajit Panja. In 1987, he became a first-time MLA from the Belgachia West Assembly constituency. He joined the TMC after Mamata Banerjee set up the party in 1998. After a 2009 bypoll, he became the Serampore MLA, which he has since won in consecutive polls, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.
The ongoing ED investigation into the financial irregularities surfaced after the alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at the hospital on August 9, leading to massive protests in West Bengal and an impasse between doctors and the state government.
