Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital in Powai. (Express Photo by Aman Deshmukh) Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital in Powai. (Express Photo by Aman Deshmukh)

FIVE DOCTORS, including the CEO and the medical director of LH Hiranandani hospital in suburban Mumbai, were arrested Tuesday for alleged negligence in connection with the illegal kidney donation racket busted by the Mumbai Police last month. The police had previously arrested eight persons in the case.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deven Bharti said, “Five doctors have been arrested in connection with their role in the illegal kidney transplants that took place at the hospital.” The five were arrested under sections 12 (explaining effects to donor and recipient) and 21 (offence committed by a company) of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994. Deputy Commissioner of Police Vinayak Deshmukh said the process of verifying how many transplants at the hospital were illegal was still under way.

The arrests of the five doctors, including CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, takes the total number of arrests in the case to 13.

An officer said there was alleged negligence on part of these doctors in following the regulations laid down by the Act governing organ donation. “During the course of the probe, it will become clear if they acquired any monetary gains in the entire process,” said the officer.

He added that sections of the Indian Penal Code invoked against the eight accused arrested earlier had not been applied against the doctors as of now. They will be produced before a magistrate’s court Wednesday.

The investigation by the Powai police till now has established that Bhijendra Bhisen, the main accused in the case, used agents to scout for donors and recipients, mostly from Gujarat. The accused would then prepare forged documents showing the donor as a relative of the patient. As per the law governing organ transplantation, the donor and the recipient have to be blood relatives or spouses.

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The eight accused include a man named Khwaja, a Mumbra resident, who allegedly procured forged documents. Nilesh Kamble, the assistant manager and transplant coordinator at Hiranandani Hospital, reportedly ensured that the documents were accepted by the hospital committee as genuine so that the surgery could take place without glitches.

The scam was busted after a social activist alerted the Powai police regarding an illegal transplant at the hospital on July 14. The police reached the spot and stopped the surgery. It was found that the kidney recipient, Brijkishore Jaiswal, was not related to the donor, Shobha Thakur, who was posing as his wife. The police subsequently registered a case and arrested eight persons.

Dr Rajesh Kumar, attached with the nephrology department of Hiranandani hospital, said, “The hospital has no role in the kidney racket. If doctors are arrested because some other party is submitting forged documents, it will hamper the organ transplant programme.”

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