Bail has been granted to all five doctors of Hiranandani Hospital charged in connection with an illegal kidney sale racket at the hospital.
Earlier, five doctors including the CEO of the of the reputed LH Hiranandani Hospital were arrested by the Mumbai police in connection with the racket and sent to police custody by Andheri Metropolitan court.
CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shetye, Dr Mukesh Shaha and Dr Prakash Shetye were arrested under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, Mumbai Police’s spokesperson DCP Ashok Dudhe said.
So far, a total of 15 persons, including the five medicos, have been arrested in the case which first came to light last month at the hospital. A few more suspected cases have surfaced later and police are probing around 30 transplants conducted at the hospital in the past one year.
The racket came to light when the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on 14 July at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital where donor and recipient were not related.
The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney was not his wife, contrary to the papers submitted by the duo. The woman had pretended to be his wife only to be able to donate the kidney to Jaiswal, according to the police.
Police then began probing if anybody else had received kidneys using similar underhand means and if hospital authorities were involved.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the inquiry committee’s report points out that transplant coordinators disregarded protocol to push the files forward and the CEO allegedly never communicated with the transplant team. The agents liaising for the transplants had uninhibited access to the hospital; they could come and go as they pleased.
An official spokesperson for Hiranandani Group said the hospital was conducting their own internal probe and declined to comment till it was completed.
The accused will be produced for remand at Andheri Court on Wednesday.
(With inputs from Mumbai Mirror, PTI, IANS and ANI.)
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