Illegal donor was agent’s wife: Cops

The woman who posed as the sister of a patient to donate her kidney has turned out to be none other than the wife of an accused in the Hiranandani scam.

The Mumbai police and the directorate of health services (DHS) has identified the woman as Ruksana, wife of Yusuf Shah Diwan, an arrested accused in the kidney-transplant scam at the Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital.

The police said Diwan turned into a middleman to facilitate kidney transplants after his wife Ruksana herself underwent surgery in May. Rasilaben Kathiriya, the recipient in the above-mentioned case, was operated upon in May for a kidney transplant but died a month later ostensibly of complications.

The police had arrested 13 other accused, including five Hiranandani doctors.

Sources said Diwan had lured his wife into the racket. “He arranged for her kidney to be sold to Rasilaben through other middlemen and hospital authorities. Once the surgery was done, he too became an agent and started bringing in potential kidney donors,” said a source.

Police sources said Diwan who was arrested on July 20, had introduced Shobha Thakur, the donor in the busted racket, to other middleman in the case Baijendra Bisen. ”Diwan knew Thakur as both of them hailed from the same village — Nadiad in Gujarat. Thakur worked as a maid in the village and was told she would be able to earn substantial money through his scheme. He then brought her to Mumbai where she was allegedly trained by other middlemen to say she was Jaiswal’s wife and a resident of Malabar Hills,” said a police source.

Ruksana posed as Harshaben Kevadiya, Rasilaben’s sister. Rasilaben, died a month after the transplant surgery. “While on paper the blood tests were shown to be compatible, medically they weren’t since the donor was not a blood relative of the recipient,” said a DHS source. “We are not sure if the hospital conducted any tests at all.”

While the DHS has asked the Powai police to arrest Ruksana, the police has not been able to trace her.