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." 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 has been 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 this was done for a focussed investigation as police stations also have to also take care of numerous other aspects such as, law and order, VIP movement, deployment, and police clearances.
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Among the 15 people named in the FIR 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. Others named in the case are the patient from the Moshi area of Pimpri Chinchwad who received the kidney, his wife, three of their family, the woman from Kolhapur who was presented as the receiver’s wife to become the donor, and two middlemen. The FIR was filed based on a complaint by Dr Sanjog Kadam, the Deputy Director of Medical Services, Pune.
The probe till now by the officials from Koregaon Park police station has pointed to the two men 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 The Indian Express, “Ruby Hall has done nothing wrong. We are being unnecessarily harassed.”
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