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Kidney racket: Court rejects bail plea from two doctors
Two doctors – Suwin Shetty, a pathologist, and Veena Sewlikar, a general surgeon — had on Thursday filed for the anticipatory bail before Dindoshi sessions court that rejected it on Friday.
A city sessions court rejected the anticipatory bail applications of two doctors from the Hiranandani Hospital, in connection with the kidney racket on Friday. The police told the court that custodial interrogation was necessary.
The Dindoshi sessions court judge F.M. Khwaja, hearing the bail application on Friday , observed that the matter was serious and hence pre-arrest bails could not be granted.
The two – Suwin Shetty, a pathologist, and Veena Sewlikar, a general surgeon — had on Thursday filed for the anticipatory bail before Dindoshi sessions court.
Dr Veena, who was earlier called in to record her statement, did not turn up before the police.
Sources in the legal team said the prosecution’s mention of their name while seeking custody of the five arrested accused, prompted them to file the ABA. The prime contention of the ABA is that they were not responsible for the background check of the donors and the organ receiver.
Appearing for the doctors, advocate Brian D’Lima argued, “Both of them are full time doctors. It is not for the doctors to decide whether the documents produced are genuine or forged.” The contention of the doctors is that they are not required to interview the parties, even under the law, and it is the job of the Ethics Committee
D’Lima also argued that Brijkishor Jaiswal was given bail. However, the court pointed out that Jaiswal was on dialysis. .
The Powai police had, while arresting the five doctors, claimed that the latter had failed to follow the procedure prescribed under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act. However, the defence denied the allegation and claimed that it is the role of the members of the ethics committee to check the credentials of the donor and the receiver.
Earlier, based on the report by a three-member committee formed by the health department, the Powai police on Tuesday arrested Dr Mukesh Madhukar Shette, 49, a nephrologist, Dr Kernel Anurag Gurunath Naik,56, the medical director of Hiranandani, Dr Sujeet Chatterjee, the CEO of Hiranandani, Dr. Mukeshkumar Shah, 57, a urologist and Dr. Prakashchandra Shetty.
