Kidney racket: Court rejects doctors' anticipatory bail pleas

With investigators planning to plumb deeper into the alleged kidney racket at a multi speciality hospital in Powai, a court here today rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of two doctors in the case, after the arrest of five doctors two days ago.

The anticipatory bail applications of Veena Swelikar (general surgeon) and Suvin Shetty (consulting pathologist) were rejected by Judge Khawaja Farooq Ahmed of Dindoshi sessions court here after Powai police said their interrogation was needed to unearth the entire racket.

Both the doctors of L H Hiranandani hospital moved the court yesterday seeking pre-arrest bail arguing they had followed 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 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.

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.

D'lima also argued that it was not a doctor's job to find out whether the documents were forged or genuine and said since they were full-time doctors they should be granted relief as in the case of Jaiswal (recipient), who is out on bail.

But the court rejected the argument saying Jaiswal's case cannot be compared with the doctors as the former was a dialysis patient.

The prosecution as well as the investigating officer told the court that the offence was of a very serious nature and their interrogation was required to widen the probe to find out if anybody else had received kidney using similar subterfuge and if the hospital authorities were involved.

Police is also investigating if there was any exchange of money among the doctors, agents and donors in the alleged racket besides studying the Call Detail Records (CDRs) of the doctors and the racketeers arrested earlier.

Following the bust-up, 14 persons including five doctors, donors, receivers and agents have been arrested in the case so far.

All the five doctors--hospital CEO Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Anurag Naik, Mukesh Shete, Mukesh Shaha and Prakash Shete--under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act on the basis of a report by the Director of State Health Services Department, are in police custody till August 13.

Meanwhile, a group of senior nephrologists and urologists in the city have decided to put on hold fresh kidney transplant cases till the government steps in to provide clarity on procedural intricacies involved in such surgeries.

Shrirang Bicchu, a nephrologist at Bombay Hospital in South Mumbai who is also a member of Mumbai Nephrologists group, said, "We are very afraid (to carry out transplants) after the development. It's not a protest but it's out of fear. Just because there is no clarity on the donor's transplant, we have stopped taking fresh transplant cases."

However, those cases, who are already lined up at different hospitals across the city, will be taken care of, he said.

"If our reservations are not considered seriously by the government, we will stop performing transplant procedures completely," said another nephrologist, requesting anonymity.