This Article is From Aug 11, 2016

Police To Keep An Eye On Future Transplants at Mumbai's Hiranandani Hospital

Hiranandani hospital's licence for transplants has been suspended after the kidney selling scandal.

Mumbai: A policeman, serving or retired, will now be a part of the hospital committee that oversees organ transplants at Mumbai's LH Hiranandani Hospital, where a full full-scale organ sales racket has allegedly been on.

The Maharashtra Government has suspended the hospital's organ transplant license. But the order from the government will be applicable when transplants begin again, sources said.

In July, activist Suresh Gupta blew the whistle on the racket, resulting in the arrest of five senior doctors of the hospital last night. The police are investigating 30 organ transplants that took place in the hospital over the last one year.

The hospital's Chief Executive Officer Sujit Chatterjee, Medical Director Anurag Naik, doctors Mukesh Shetye, Mukesh Shah and Prakash Shetty are currently in police custody for questioning. Their licenses have been suspended.

The latest arrests have taken up the number of people caught to 14. Six of the accused worked at the hospital.

"The CEO and the doctors have been booked for negligence as recommended by the committee formed to inquire into the racket. They were supposed to meet the donors and recipients before the surgery but they didn't," said Mumbai police spokesperson, Ashok Dudhe.

On July 14, the Mumbai police stopped an operation midway after being tipped off by Suresh Gupta. After verifying the documents that were submitted, the donor's identity was found to be fake.

The donor, 42-year-old Shobha Thakur, was from a poor family, sources said. She was allegedly being paid Rs 2 lakh for donating her kidney.

The police say the donors, all from poor families, were paid for their kidneys, which is illegal under the Transplant of Human Organs Act.

"They target the poor, pay them about Rs 2 lakh to keep them quiet and charge Rs. 25 to 50 lakh from the recipients. How can doctors perform such a big operation without talking to donors?" said Mr Gupta.

The Mumbai police are investigating whether the racket could involve other states. "There are some states also involved in this racket. It's a very big inter-state racket," said BJP MP Kirit Somaiya.
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