A city suburban court on Saturday remanded five doctors, including the Chief Executive officer (CEO) of lH Hirandanani Hospital, in judicial custody till August 26, in the alleged kidney transplant scam case.
After their three-day police custody ended, the five doctors — CEO Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, Medical Director Dr. Anurag Naik, Dr. Mukesh Shete, Dr. Mukesh Shah and Dr. Prakash Shetty — were produced before a suburban magistrate’s court.
With Public Prosecutor Sudhir Sapkal not seeking the extension of the police custody of five doctors, the court sent the five doctors to judicial custody till August 26.
The court, however, granted the five doctors the liberty of applying for bail on August 16.
Earlier, the Prosecution told the court that the police had scrutinised the bank accounts details and call records of the arrested doctors and were currently in the process of ascertaining as to how long they had been in touch with each and also with another accused, Brijkishore Jaiswal, a businessman from Surat, who was to receive a kidney on the basis of allegedly forged documents.
The Prosecution also told the court that the police no longer needed the custody of the five arrested doctors, as they already completed their custodial interrogation.
The grant of judicial custody to five doctors came a day after the Dindoshi Sessions Court rejected the anticipatory bail applications of two other doctors from the lH Hiranandani Hospital — Suwin Shetty and Veena Salekar.
The five doctors of the Hiranandani Hospital had been arrested by the Powai police under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) on the night of August 9.
The five arrested doctors are among the 14 persons booked by the Powai police in connection with the Kidney transplant scam, which came to light on July 14.
The scam came to light on July 14, when the Powai police had stopped a kidney transplant at the Hiranandani hospital after receiving a tip-off that the donor was impersonating as the recipient’s wife by forging documents. The investigations revealed that Brijkishore Jaiswal, a resident of Surat, was to receive a kidney from Shobha Thakur, showing Thakur as his wife, Rekha Devi. But Thakur, also hailing from Gujarat, was to sell her kidney in exchange for money.
Following the expose, the Maharashtra Government appointed an expert committee to probe the matter in detail. Subsequently, the hospital’s transplant coordinator Nilesh Kamble, the person responsible for the paper work, was arrested and a cash of Rs 8 lakh was seized from his home.
The investigations by the police have revealed that scam master-mind Bisen alias Sandeep used to lure poor people from Gujarat to sell their kidneys. Donor Thakur was allegedly promised Rs 3 lakh for selling her organ.
The role of Hospital’s CEO, Dr Sujit Chatterjee, Medical Director Dr. Anurag Naik and three other doctors came to light during the course of the inquiry conducted by a team of experts appointed by the State Director of Health Services.
Among other things, the inquiry committee has indicted two arrested doctors Dr. Mukesh Shete and Dr. Mukesh Shah for having been negligent in performing their duties. One of the accused in the case told the committee that Dr Shete was present when he was discussing the exchange of money with mastermind Bisen.
On his part, whistle-blower Suresh Gupta, a social activist, has demanded a CBI probe into the incident, saying that the racket has wide ramifications. “ The racket is spread to other states as well,” he said..