Pune City Police have booked 15 people, including senior management members and doctors of Ruby Hall Clinic, in connection with alleged malpractices in a kidney transplant conducted at the hospital in March in which a woman was allegedly presented as the organ receiver’s wife after being promised Rs 15 lakh in return.
Among the 15 people named in the First Information Report are managing trustee of the hospital Dr Purvez K Grant, deputy medical director Dr Rebecca John, legal advisor Manjusha Kulkarni, consulting nephrologist Dr Abhay Sadre, urologists Dr Bhupat Bhati and Dr Himesh Gandhi and transplant coordinator Surekha Joshi.
Police have also booked the man from Moshi who received the kidney, his wife, their three family members, the woman from Kolhapur who was presented as his wife to become the donor, and two middlemen, Ravi Gaikwad and Abhijit Madne.
The FIR was filed based on a complaint by Dr Sanjog Kadam, deputy director of medical services, Pune. Police have not made any arrests in the case.
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Ruby Hall Clinic’s managing trustee Dr Purvez K Grant said they were being harassed.
“Ruby Hall has done nothing wrong. We are being unnecessarily harassed,” Dr Grant told The Indian Express.
Following an order from a court in Pune, an offence in this regard was registered at the Koregaon Park police station late on Wednesday. Police have invoked provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, along with Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta told The Indian Express, “Once the incident came to light, we had referred the matter to the
state Health Department after preliminary inquiry. After conducting its own probe, the Health Department submitted a report to the court. Based on the directions issued by the court, the case was registered at Koregaon Park police station. Further probe is on.”
The case pertains to a kidney swap procedure, also known as paired kidney exchange, between the man from Moshi and the woman from Kolhapur posing as his wife, and a mother-daughter duo from Baramati.
While the Baramati mother’s kidney was given to the Moshi resident, the kidney of the Kolhapur woman was given to the Baramati daughter. Kidney swapping is allowed after fulfillment of all legal norms, but any financial transaction for doing so is illegal, said a police official.
Prima facie, the mother and daughter from Baramati had no role to play in the alleged malpractice, said the official. The transplant took place on March 24, after a process that started last year which included medical tests, documentation, verification interviews, scrutiny and final authorisation.
The case came to light on March 29 after the Kolhapur woman alleged that she was promised Rs 15 lakh by the middlemen for donating her kidney at Ruby Hall Clinic. 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 administration also filed a complaint accusing the woman of concealing her identity.
The FIR filed by Dr Sanjog Kadam states that the Moshi resident, his wife, the woman from Kolhapur, along with middlemen Gaikwad and Madne, presented forged documents to the hospital.
“The Ruby Hall Clinic’s internal competent authority for document scrutinisation that comprised deputy medical director Dr Rebecca John, legal advisor Manjusha Kulkarni, consulting nephrologist Dr Abhay Sadre, urologists Dr Bhupat Bhati and Dr Himesh Gandhi, and transplant coordinator Surekha Joshi, did not thoroughly scrutinise the documents and sent them to the Regional Authorisation Committee at Sassoon General Hospital, thus misleading the committee. As the alleged transplant malpractice took place at Ruby Hall Clinic, the managing trustee Dr Purvez Grant is equally responsible,” states the FIR, which was taken in Marathi.
Officials said the three family members of the Moshi resident have been booked because during the verification process, they identified the Kolhapur woman as the patient’s wife whenever asked by the authorities.
A senior police officer said one of the focus areas of investigation will be the role played by the two middlemen. Police will probe how they came in contact with the donor and receiver, and if they have been involved in similar malpractices in the past.
Earlier, state government authorities had taken a stern view of the alleged malpractice in the kidney transplant and had suspended the registration of 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.
(With inputs by Anuradha Mascarenhas)
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