Kidney racket: Anticipatory bail pleas of two doctors rejected

A local court rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of two doctors in connection with the alleged kidney transplant racket at L H Hiranandani hospital in Powai.

Judge Khawaja Farooq Ahmed of Dindoshi sessions court rejected the pleas of Veena Swelikar (a general surgeon) and Suvin Shetty (a consulting pathologist), a day after they moved the court seeking pre-arrest bail saying they followed the rules while screening the donor and the recipient before the kidney transplant procedure.

The racket was exposed after the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled for July 14 at the private hospital where donor and recipient were not related.

The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped at the last moment as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney was not his real wife, contrary to the papers submitted by the duo.

The woman had pretended to be Jaiswal's wife only to be able to donate him the kidney for monetary gains, according to police.

Arguing in favour of the two doctors on Thursday, defence counsel Brian D'lima, said certain papers given to the scrutiny committee (at the hospital before carrying out the transplant) had turned out to be forged.

Also, a videograph was conducted and both the doctors received clearance from the committee paving way for the surgical procedure.

He said its not the doctor's job to find out whether the documents are forged or genuine.

The defence also said that since the duo are full-time doctors they should be granted relief.

However, the court rejected the argument and turned down the ABAs of both the doctors after the prosecution as well as the investigating officer told the court that the nature of the offence was very serious and their custodial investigation is required to unearth the entire alleged racket.

Police had arrested hospital CEO Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Anurag Naik, Mukesh Shete, Mukesh Shaha and Prakash Shete on August 9 under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act on the basis of a report by the Director of State Health Services Department.

It is also probing if anybody had received kidney using similar subterfuge and if the hospital authorities were involved.