The Pune City police have booked 15 people, including doctors and management members of the Ruby Hall Clinic, in connection with the kidney transplant conducted at the hospital in which a woman was allegedly presented as the organ receiver’s wife and was also promised a large sum of money in return.
Among the 15 people named in the First Information Report (FIR) are Dr Purvez Grant, the Managing Trustee of the Hospital, Dr Rebecca John, the Deputy Medical Director, Legal Advisor Manjusha Kulkarni, Consulting Nephrologist Dr Abhay Sadre, Urologist Dr Himesh Gandhi, and Transplant Coordinator Surekha Joshi. The police have also booked the patient from the Moshi area of Pimpri Chinchwad who received the kidney, his wife, the woman from Kolhapur who was presented as his wife to become the donor and some others who acted as mediators in the case. The complainant in the FIR is the Deputy Director of Medical Services, Pune.
Dr P K Grant, the hospital’s Managing Trustee, when contacted said they were being harassed. “Somebody is playing the fool. Ruby Hall has done nothing wrong. They are unnecessarily trying to harass us,” Dr Grant told The Indian Express.
Following an order from a competent court in Pune, an offence in this regard was registered at the Koregaon Park police station late on Wednesday. The police have invoked provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act along with sections pertaining to cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta told The Indian Express, “After the incident came to light, we had referred the matter to the Health Department. After conducting their inquiry, the Health Department submitted a report to the competent court. Based on the directions issued by the court, an offence has been registered at Koregaon Park police station on Wednesday night. Further probe is on.”
The case had come to light in the last week of March after the woman from Kolhapur alleged that she was promised Rs 15 lakh by a middleman for donating her kidney to a patient at Ruby Hall Clinic. The woman donor was presented to hospital authorities as the patient’s wife. However, when she did not get the money that had been allegedly promised to her, she approached the Koregaon Park police station. The Ruby Hall Clinic too filed a complaint accusing the woman of concealing her identity.
The kidney transplant was permitted by the Regional Authorisation Committee of Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, and the permission was based on documents submitted to them proving the relationship of the recipient and donor.
Earlier, the state government authorities had taken a stern view of the alleged malpractice in the kidney transplant and had suspended the registration of the Ruby Hall Clinic to perform organ transplants for six months. State authorities had said the hospital had not properly verified the documents submitted by the patients. In the third week of April, the Bombay High Court had stayed the order of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research to suspend the hospital’s licence.
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