Kidney racket: Hospital staffer, middleman held

The Powai police investigating the illegal kidney transplant case arrested an employee of Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital and a middleman on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests to six.

The Powai police investigating the illegal kidney transplant case arrested an employee of Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital and a middleman on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests to six.

The employee, Nilesh Kamble, 36, is an organ transplant co-ordinator and received Rs8 lakh for overlooking forged documents, while the Mumbra-based middleman — who connived with the kingpin, Bhaijendra Bisen, 42, to make fake ID proofs — was identified by his first name Khwaja

The employee, Nilesh Kamble, 36, is an organ transplant co-ordinator and received Rs8 lakh for overlooking forged documents, while the Mumbra-based middleman — who connived with the kingpin, Bhaijendra Bisen, 42, to make fake ID proofs — was identified by his first name Khwaja.

The state government on Friday suspended the licence of the Powai hospital to conduct organ transplants.

Acting on a tip-off by activist Mahesh Tanna, the police and the hospital authorities had on Thursday stopped the illegal transplant for Surat-based businessman Brijkishore Jaiswal, 48, and arrested Jaiswal’s son Kishan, 28, and agents — Bisen,42, Bharat Sharma, 62, and Iqbal Siddiqui, 40. They were remanded in police custody.

Kamble, a Panvel resident, was nabbed from the hospital.

“Kamble was the link between hospital authorities and the mastermind, Bisen. Kamble gave a go-ahead to the kidney transplant after receiving Rs8 lakh for turning a blind eye to the fake doucments.”

Kamble claimed that this was the first time he got involved in the racket, sources said. The police recovered the amount from his residence.

Investigation revealed that the Jaiswal was supposed to pay Rs23 lakh for the transplant and the kingpin, who has criminal antecedents, demanded a Rs2 lakh cut in the deal.

The police suspect an inter-state racket and have sent a team to Guajrat as the kingpin is from the same state.

They said the accused forged Aadhar cards and PAN cards to show that the recipient, Jaiswal, and the donor were husband and wife.The address on the ID proofs showed that Jaiswal and the donor Shobha Thakur are residents of Malabar Hill.

Thakur and Jaiswal were named as accused in the case and will be arrested after being discharged from the hospital, the police said.

Meanwhile, hospital authorities said that they were cooperating in the investigation.

A case has been registered on charges of cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy and forgery of the IPC and the Transplantation of Human Organ Act, 1994.

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