The Powai police has registered an offence against four people over their alleged involvement in an organ transplant racket.
The Powai police has registered an offence against four people over their alleged involvement in an organ transplant racket. One of the accused is allegedly a patient at Hiranandani Hospital and he had agreed to a middle agent, “supplying” him a fake donor who posed as his wife to the hospital administration.
The first information report (FIR) was registered by Mahesh Tanna, a social worker who visited Hiranandani Hospital in Powai after receiving a tip that a patient had gotten himself admitted to the hospital for a kidney transplant. The patient was later identified as Brij Kishor Jaiswal (48), a resident of Nepean Sea Road.
“We got a call on the police helpline number that a kidney racket was taking place on the hospital premises so our officers rushed to the spot and investigated. We found that Jaiswal was set to receive a kidney from a woman identified as Rekha and who claimed to be his wife. The surgery was to take place on Thursday,” said an officer from Powai police station.
He added that upon checking the documents of both the patient and the donor, many discrepancies were found. “ We checked the documents submitted by the couple and saw that Jaiswal’s age was mentioned differently in his ration card and Aadhar card. Later, we found that the woman’s ration card, marriage certificate and birth certificate were all forged,” said the officer.
Deputy commissioner of police, zone X, Vinayak Deskhmukh confirmed the incident and said that, “Our inquiries established that the donor was not Jaiswal’s wife so we informed the hospital authorities. After this, the surgery was cancelled and Jaiswal, along with four others, were taken to the police station for inquiries.”
The other accused being questioned are identified as Jaiswal’s son Kishan (28), and two others, identified as Vaijendra Bisen (42), Bharat Sharma (48) and Iqbal Siddiqui (35). Bisen, Sharma and Siddiqui are said to be middlemen and sources added that even the woman is being questioned and arrests will be made by Thursday night.
The FIR has been made under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
While authorities at the Hiranandani hospital denied that doctors were involved in the incident, officials said that since the patient’s documents were submitted to the hospital, they will probe whether hospital authorities were involved in the racket.
The hospital, on Thursday night issued a statement saying, “A husband and wife were slated to undergo a kidney transplant surgery at our hospital today. The hospital got to know that it may be a case of false identification and the couple are not related. The hospital administration immediately swung into action and cancelled the surgery. No organ was retrieved from the donor. We cooperated with the police and shared all the legal documents submitted by the couple to the Institutional Ethic Committee as part of the approval process (as mandated by law). The police is investigating the matter and the hospital is fully supporting the police investigate the matter thoroughly.”
