Kolkata, Jan 31 (NationPress) A special court has scheduled February 4 for the initiation of charge framing in the case involving multi-crore financial discrepancies at the state-operated R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital located in Kolkata.

The judge of the special court communicated the date for the charge framing during a hearing.

All five accused parties in the case are required to be physically present in court on that date, as mandated by the judge.

Once the charges are framed, the trial will commence in the same court.

Among the accused is the former principal of R.G. Kar, Sandip Ghosh, alongside his assistant-cum-bodyguard Afsar Ali, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra, as well as junior doctor Ashish Pandey. All accused are currently in judicial custody.

On January 28, the Calcutta High Court, under the guidance of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, instructed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)—which is probing this case—to finalize the charge framing against the five accused by February 6.

Justice Ghosh's directive came after the CBI informed the court that they had obtained the necessary no-objection certificate from the state government.

On the morning of Friday, Ghosh’s counsel made a final plea for additional time to review the case prior to charge framing. However, this request was promptly denied by Justice Ghosh, who noted that there had been a systemic delay in initiating the trial.

Justice Ghosh also pointed out that despite the CBI submitting a charge sheet in November of the previous year, the trial process has yet to commence.

The initial delay in framing charges against Ghosh was due to the unavailability of a no-objection certificate from the state government, which is essential for proceeding with charges and starting the trial for any state government employee.