Kidney racket: Hospital CEO, 4 doctors get judicial custody

MUMBAI, Aug 13: A local court today remanded L H Hiranandani Hospital CEO and four doctors in judicial custody till August 26 in connection with an alleged kidney transplant racket.

Hospital CEO Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Anurag Naik, Mukesh Shetye, Mukesh Shaha and Prakash Shetye, who were arrested on Wednesday, were sent to 14-day judicial custody by Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Bandra.

The five doctors also filed bail applications in the court, which is likely to be heard on Tuesday.

They were arrested under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act on the basis of a report by the Director of State Health.

Yesterday, a local sessions court had rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of two doctors – Veena Swelikar (a general surgeon) and Suvin Shetty (a consulting pathologist).

The racket was exposed after the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on July 14 at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, where donor and recipient were not related.

Following the bust-up, nine persons, including the donor, receiver and agents were arrested.

The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped at the last moment as police found that the woman who was donating the kidney to him 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 the police. (PTI)