West Bengal: Panskura Hospital rape accused found running personal business from institution

Kolkata, Sep 17
Sheikh Zahir Abbas, the accused in the Panskura Super Speciality Hospital rape case in West Bengal, has been found to have exploited his position as facility manager to secure lucrative contracts for his personal businesses, police and hospital sources confirmed on Wednesday.

Abbas, who was arrested last week for the alleged rape of a female staffer at the hospital, was employed by a private outsourced agency and had been engaged by the hospital authorities as a facility manager through that agency, said police sources.

However, since taking up the role of facility manager a couple of years ago, he began leveraging his influence with local and politically connected figures to secure contracts from the hospital authorities for his own businesses.

Sources familiar with the matter said the accused owned eight ambulances and two passenger vehicles, all of which he rented out to the hospital authorities, earning substantial sums in the process.

“As a facility manager, he was expected to ensure the safety and security of both medical and non-medical staff. In practice, however, there had been several complaints that instead of focusing on this responsibility, he frequently interfered in administrative matters, particularly in decisions on hiring outsourced services. Few dared to challenge him because of his local political connections,” said a senior doctor at the hospital, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) took suo motu cognisance of the matter and decided to send a delegation to Panskura to meet the victim and her family.

Many at the hospital are drawing comparisons between the accused and Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, who faced allegations of using the institution for personal financial gain.

Ghosh is presently in judicial custody in connection with multi-crore financial irregularities at R.G. Kar Hospital.

He is also accused of being one of the principal conspirators in the rape and murder of a junior doctor within the premises of R.G Kar Hospital in August last year.

On Tuesday, the accused was presented in a district court at Panskura, and the court remanded him in police custody for eight days.