The five accused in the multi-crore financial irregularities case at state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, including the former principal of the institute Sandip Ghosh, on Tuesday, sought exemption from the case.

Besides Ghosh, four others who have sought similar exemption from the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), are his assistant-cum-bodyguard Afsar Ali, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra and a junior doctor Ashish Pandey. All of them are in judicial custody now.

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The hearing for framing of charge in the case is likely on Wednesday at a special court in Kolkata. It is learnt that the hearing on exemption petitions by the five accused will be conducted simultaneously with the hearing on charge-framing.

On 28 January, the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the CBI, which is investigating the case, to complete the process of framing charges against the five accused individuals by 6 February.

Recently, Ghosh also approached the Bench of Justice Ghosh with a plea seeking more time before the framing of the charges could begin. However, Justice Ghosh summarily rejected the petition.

As per the charge sheet filed by CBI in the financial irregularities case, the main charges are manipulations in the tendering process, getting infrastructure-related work at R G Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state public works department, “smuggling” bio-medical wastes from the hospital and selling the organs of the unidentified bodies coming to the hospital morgue for autopsy.

In the charge sheet, the investigating officials also gave details on the skyrocketing increase in the quantum of assets and properties of the accused persons, especially Ghosh, during his tenure as the principal.

In the charge sheet, Ghosh has been identified as the mastermind of the financial irregularities in the case.