Kolkata– A Calcutta High Court judge on Wednesday rejected a plea by former R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh seeking additional time before facing charges in the institution's multi-crore financial irregularities case.

The charge-framing process, scheduled to begin Wednesday at the special court, was delayed due to Ghosh and other accused filing a review petition with the High Court. This petition aimed to overturn the court's rejection last week of their similar requests for additional time.

Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who had rejected the initial petitions on January 31, reiterated his order, directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to proceed with the charge-framing process at the special court by February 6. Justice Ghosh questioned the admissibility of the review petition and emphasized that his previous decision was made after careful consideration.

The CBI is investigating the case following a Calcutta High Court order, while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting a parallel probe into the financial irregularities at R.G. Kar. The ED initiated its investigation suo motu after filing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to investigate money laundering aspects.

Five individuals, including Ghosh, are named in the CBI's chargesheet. The accused, who are currently in judicial custody, include Ghosh's assistant-cum-bodyguard Afsar Alir, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra, and junior doctor Ashish Pandey.

The charges leveled in the case involve allegations of manipulating the tendering process at R.G. Kar, awarding infrastructure-related work to private contractors bypassing the state public works department in exchange for commissions, illegally smuggling bio-medical waste from the hospital, and selling organs of unidentified bodies from the hospital morgue in the open market at premium prices.