A medical board of the ESIC Medical College Hospital, run by the labour ministry in Joka, will check the health condition of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, who is in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody, and whether his voice samples can be collected. The ED is probing the alleged scam in connection with recruitment of teachers and other staff in schools. The ED special court at Alipore on Saturday directed the ESIC Medical College and Hospital to form a board to check the health condition of Sujay Krishna alias ‘Kalighat-er Kaku’ before the investigating agency collects his voice samples.

Following a petition filed by the ED, the special court issued the directive. Sujay Krishna has been undergoing treatment at the state-run premier SSKM Hospital for more than the past two months. Earlier, on 10 November, the SSKM Hospital as well as Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGME&R) had responded to the ED’s queries on the health condition of Sujay Krishna. Sources at SSKM Hospital had reportedly written to the ED saying that a medical board comprising experts in different departments like cardiology, endocrinology, ENT, psychiatry, general medicine etc had been formed to monitor his health condition.

The ED wants to collect voice samples of Sujay Krishna to find out whether they match with the recorded samples in audio clips available in his mobile phones. The ED officials were trying to get the voice samples repeatedly but they were denied to do so owing to the bad health condition of Mr Bhadra. Earlier on 26 October, the SSKM Hospital authorities denied permission to the ED to collect voice samples.

A team of ED officers, which went to the government hospital, was told that even though Bhadra had been shifted from the intensive care unit (ICU) to a cabin in the cardiology ward, he was not yet medically fit to undergo the procedure required to collect his voice samples.

Around two months after his arrest, Sujay Bhadra had undergone a heart operation at a private hospital in August for arterial blockage.Within a day of the operation, he was shifted from the premier private hospital and has since remained at SSKM Hospital for “post-surgery complications”.