Kidney transplant racket: Two doctors seek pre-arrest bail

Two doctors on Thursday moved the sessions court in Mumbai seeking pre-arrest bail in connection with the alleged kidney transplant racket at L H Hiranandani Hospital. The anticipatory bail applications of Dr Suvin Shetty and Dr Veena Swelikar are likely to be heard on Friday. Both have said that they followed the rules while screening the donor and the recipient before kidney transplant procedure.

Police arrested hospital CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shaha and Dr Prakash Shete on August 9 under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act on the basis of a report by the Director of State Health Services Department.

The racket was exposed after the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled for July 14 at the privately run Hiranandani Hospital here where donor and recipient were not related. The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped at the last moment as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney 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.