3 Arrested In Rajasthan For Issuing Fake Organ Transplant Certificates

Rajasthan's Anti-Corruption Bureau, or ACB, has arrested three men in a major crackdown on an organ transplant racket that issues fake no-objection certificates, or NOCs, in exchange for money.

A staffer of Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital allegedly issued fake certificates for the transplants.

Several NOCs were issued to foreign nationals who had come to Jaipur for treatment, the ACB said.

Twelve hospitals in the state are on the ACB's radar along with a few in Mumbai.

The SMS Hospital staffer and the middlemen were caught red-handed at the hospital while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 for an NOC, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (ACB), Ravi, said.

The accused include an SMS Hospital official and organ transplant coordinators at the EHCC Hospital and Fortis Hospital, he said.

The state government issued an order on Monday saying that the assistant administrative officer of SMS Hospital, Gaurav Singh, has been suspended after the ACB arrested him.

A complaint was received that an SMS Hospital staff, in collusion with middlemen, was issuing fake NOCs for organ transplants without the approval of the committee concerned, the ACB said.

The ACB verified the complaint and sent a team to the hospital on Sunday. There they caught Gaurav Singh and Anil Joshi, the organ transplant coordinator of EHCC Hospital, accepting Rs 70,000 as a bribe. Three fake NOCs were also recovered from them.

The team also arrested one Vinod - an organ transplant coordinator of the Fortis Hospital in Jaipur.

The bureau is now checking how many fake certificates were issued and is investigating two hospitals in Jaipur. The premises of Fortis and EHCC hospitals were searched in connection with the case.