Hiranandani CEO, medical director, 3 docs held in Kidney racket

Mumbai: Five Mumbai doctors, including chief executive officer of LH Hiranandani Hospital Dr Sujit Chatterjee, were arrested on Tuesday evening for their alleged involvement in a kidney racket. The Mumbai police and Maharashtra’s health department said they had also identified two other kidney sale cases involving the Powai hospital, and are investigating those separately.CEO Dr Sujit Chatterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shetye, Dr Mukesh Shaha and Dr Prakash Shetye were arrested under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act.

The racket came to light when the police were tipped off that a kidney transplant operation had been scheduled on July 14 at the privately-run Hiranandani Hospital where donor and recipient were not related. The operation on Brijkishor Jaiswal, the recipient, was stopped as police found that the woman who was donating him the kidney was not his wife, contrary to the papers submitted by the duo.

The police received a tip-off about a possible sale at the hospital on July 15. Surat resident Brijkishore Jaiswal, an end-stage kidney failure patient, was supposedly receiving a donor organ from one Shobha Thakur from Gujarat. However, Thakur was put down as his wife, Rekha Devi, and was to sell her kidney in exchange for Rs 3 lakh. The Mumbai police identified the mastermind behind the racket as Bhijendra Bisen alias Sandeep, who allegedly lured poor residents from Gujarat to sell their kidneys.