After alleged suicide attempt by Kunal Ghosh, Mamata suspends 3 jail officials

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday suspended three officials of the Kolkata jail where suspended TMC MP and Saradha scam accused Kunal Ghosh allegedly tried to commit suicide. [caption id=“attachment_1802793” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee suspended three officials of Kolkata jail where Kunal Ghosh allegedly tried to commit suicide. PTI[/caption] Superintendent of Presidency Correctional Home, jail doctor and on duty staff were the ones suspended. Making a statement to this effect in the state Assembly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee would head the committee which would probe the incident. The superintendent, jail doctor and on duty staff would remain suspended pending completion of the inquiry, she said. Banerjee said Ghosh’s condition is absolutely stable and he is being examined every hour by the doctors attending on him. “At 2 am, he himself complained of uneasiness,” she said. “Why should (the) doctor give him 15 sleeping pills ? Two or three sleeping pills could have been given to him… Perhaps he did not take as many pills as reported. Doctors also said it could not be that he has taken so many pills,” she said. The chief minister said the Saradha ponzi scam case was being investigated by the CBI and not the state government. Ghosh was chargesheeted but some people were indulging in politics on this incident, she said, adding those who “cheated the society the most were being painted as great”. Early this morning, Kunal Ghosh allegedly tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills inside the jail. He has been admitted to a state-run hospital. “Kunal Ghosh claimed that he has taken sleeping pills to commit suicide. He later on called the doctor and they found everything to be normal but still as a precautionary measure we did not take any chance and got him admitted to the SSKM Hospital,” West Bengal Correctional Home Services Minister HA Swafi told PTI in Kolkata. Doctors there have kept Ghosh, an accused in the Saradha scam, under observation. A top jail department official said, “As he had threatened (to commit suicide), we had kept extra watch on him for the past two days. Before going to sleep we searched him thoroughly. But no sedative or sleeping pill of that sort was found in his possession. “But at around 2:30 am he started complaining of breathlessness and claimed he had taken pills following which jail doctors called on him, examined him thoroughly but did not find anything abnormal. Still we did not take any chance,” the official told PTI. On 10 November when he was produced before a city court, Ghosh had threatened to commit suicide if the CBI did not take proper action against “those involved” within three days. “Investigation is being influenced. It is not acceptable that I will rot in jail while those involved will roam freely. I am giving three days’ time, if action is not taken I will commit suicide,” the suspended Trinamool Congress MP had told Metropolitan Magistrate Arvind Mishra at Bankshall Court in Kolkata. “I pray to you to pass an order that during these three days, none of my relatives or my lawyer be allowed to meet me or else I may get influenced and dissuaded,” Ghosh, who had during earlier court hearings accused some top Trinamool Congress leaders of having benefited from the scam, told the judge. (With inputs from PTI)