Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ramnath Pokale said, "The investigation has been handed over to the Crime Branch on Wednesday and teams from Unit 1 will conduct the probe." (Representational/File Photo)The Crime Branch of the Pune City police has taken over the probe into the alleged malpractices in a kidney transplant conducted at Ruby Hall Clinic in March in which a woman was allegedly presented as the organ receiver’s wife and was also promised Rs 15 lakh in return.
The case was till now being investigated by the Koregaon Park police station, where a First Information Report was registered on May 11 following an order from a court. The police have till now arrested two middlemen Ravi Rodge (41) and Abhijit Gathne (36), both residents of Pune.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ramnath Pokale said, “The investigation has been handed over to the Crime Branch on Wednesday and teams from Unit 1 will conduct the probe.”
Officials said that the case was handed over to the Crime branch for a focussed investigation. The Crime branch of any police jurisdiction has dedicated teams for probe of crimes as against the police station who along with probes have to also take care of numerous other aspects such law and order, VIP movement, deployment and police clearances.
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Among the 15 people named in the First Information Report (FIR) are Managing Trustee of the Hospital Dr Purvez K Grant, the 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. Others named in the case are the patient from the Moshi area of Pimpri Chinchwad who received the kidney, his wife, their three family members, the woman from Kolhapur who was presented as receiver’s wife to become the donor and two middlemen. The FIR was filed based on a complaint given by Dr Sanjog Kadam, the Deputy Director of Medical Services, Pune.
The probe conducted till now by the officials from Koregaon Park police station has pointed to the two middlemen having donated their kidneys earlier and also played the role of middlemen in at least four kidney transplants where alleged malpractices were involved.
The case pertains to a kidney swap procedure, also known as paired kidney exchange, between the Moshi man and the Kolhapur woman posing as his wife, and a mother-daughter duo from Baramati. While the Baramati mother’s kidney was given to the Moshi resident, kidney of the Kolhapur woman was given to the Baramati daughter. While kidney swapping is allowed after fulfillment of all legal norms, any financial transaction for doing so is illegal. 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.
After the case was registered, Ruby Hall Clinic’s managing trustee Dr Purvez K Grant had told Express on Thursday, “Ruby Hall has done nothing wrong. We are being unnecessarily harassed,”
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