Those arrested have been identified as Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shah, Dr Prakash Shetty and Dr Sujit Chattarjee.
Those arrested have been identified as Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shah, Dr Prakash Shetty and Dr Sujit Chattarjee.
Five doctors, including the CEO and medical director of LH Hiranandani hospital, were arrested late on Tuesday night for their involvement in an organ transplant racket. These arrests take the total number of arrests to 14, which also includes an employee of another hospital, a patient, donor and the middlemen.
The arrested doctors have been identified as Dr Sujit Chattarjee, CEO, Hiranandani hospital, Dr Anurag Naik, medical director, Dr Mukesh Shete, nephrologist, and urologists Dr Mukesh Shah and Dr Prakash Shetty. Official sources revealed that the doctors had missed crucial verification details of the patient and donor in the kidney donation racket and contravened the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
“Based on the report of the appropriate authority, the Powai police has arrested five accused at 8.30 pm on Tuesday, including the CEO and the medical director of the Hiranandani hospital. They have been charged under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994,” Mumbai police spokesperson DCP Ashok Dudhe said.
Sources in the Mumbai police revealed that the arrests were made based on the findings of a report submitted by a three-member panel set up by the state government. The panel comprised Dr Sujata Patwardhan, zonal transplant co-ordination centre (ZTCC) secretary, Dr Gauri Rathod, assistant director at the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), and urologist Dr Kalpana Mehta and had submitted its findings to the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) on July 23. This report was submitted to the Mumbai police on July 5 and had allegedly named three doctors from Hiranandani hospital for their involvement in the said racket.
Senior police sources revealed that the doctors had been booked for medical negligence. “We are still probing the extent of their involvement in the racket. While investigations so far have not proved that the doctors were directly involved in the racket, we will be conducting further investigations and based on their interrogations we may add further charges against them,” said a police official.
On July 14, the Powai police acting on a tip-off had investigated a kidney donation operation of a patient identified as Brijkishore Jaiswal (48) scheduled to take place the same day at Hiranandani hospital and had found that the donor Shobha Thakur had submitted fake documents to show that she was the patient’s wife. The police had then arrested the patient Jaiswal and his son Kishan, Thakur and two middlemen Vaijendra Bisen and Bharat Sharma. Bisen, officials said, had been involved in a multi-state kidney donation racket in 2007. On July 16, the police had arrested Nilesh Kamble, the transplant co-ordinator.
