Kidney racket: Punjab med college head sacked

CHANDIGARH: The principal of Government Medical College, Amritsar, was suspended on Wednesday for allegedly removing the kidney of a child during a prostrate surgery in the institution's hospital.

Dr (Mrs) Jaswinder Pal Kaur Shergill is the second principal of the college to be suspended in a kidney sale controversy. Dr OP Mahajan, then principal of the institution, was suspended and arrested for his alleged involvement in a kidney racket in 2002.

Sonia, the three-year-old daughter of a peon, was operated upon last year for prostrate problems. However, in a scanning examination this month the parents of the girl found that one of her kidneys was missing. Amritsar deputy commissioner NJS Pannu conducted an inquiry and found Shergill and  a duty officer doctor guilty of "surreptitiously removing the girl's kidney".

The principal reportedly told the deputy commissioner that the kidney needed to be removed as some malignancy was detected during the course of the surgery. She, however, could not explain why the parents of the girl were not informed about it.

Minister for medical education and research Tikshan Sood said Dr Jagdish Gargi, director of the Post-graduate Medical Institute of Research, Jalandhar, would officiate as principal of the Amritsar medical college. A three-member team would conduct a probe into the incident.

Incidentally, Dr Gargi, who will officiate as principal of the Amritsar medical college, was one of the main accused in a kidney racket. The case is pending in the Punjab and Haryana HC.