Bail for 5 doctors in Hiranandani kidney transplant case

Mumbai, Aug 18 (PTI) Five doctors, including the CEO ofL H Hiranandani Hospital, were today granted bail by a localcourt in connection with the alleged kidney transplant racket. The Andheri metropolitan magistrate court, which had onTuesday reserved its order till today on their applicationsgranted bail to CEO Sujit Chatterjee, medical director AnuragNaik, Mukesh Shetye, Mukesh Shaha and Prakash Shetye, on thecondition that they attend Powai police station till September26. They were also directed against leaving the country. All the accused had moved for bail on August 13 after thecourt remanded them to 14-day judicial custody till August26. On Tuesday, their lawyers Aabad Ponda and Pranav Badekahad told the court that the case against the doctors and thehospital authorities was only of procedural lapses andnegligence. Also, several other accused in the case includingthe donor and recipient are on bail. They also told the court that the case against the doctorswas not under Indian Penal Code but under the Organ TransplantAct and the money which allegedly exchanged hands for thetransplant has been recovered. The doctors were arrested under the Transplantation ofHuman Organs Act on the basis of a report by the Director ofState Health. The racket was exposed after the police were tipped offthat a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on July14 at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, wheredonor and recipient were not related. Following the bust-up, 14 people, including fivedoctors, the donor, receiver and agents were arrested. The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, wasstopped at the last moment as police found that the woman whowas donating the kidney to him was not his real wife, contraryto the papers submitted by the duo. The woman had pretended to be Jaiswal’s wife only to beable to donate him the kidney for monetary gains, accordingto the police. Last week, a local sessions court had rejected theanticipatory bail pleas of two doctors – Veena Swelikar (ageneral surgeon) and Suvin Shetty (a consulting pathologist)in the case after Powai police said that their interrogationwas needed to unearth the entire racket. PTI VI DKMRJ