Police find more victims from outside Maharashtra

MUMBAI: The Powai police, investigating the kidney racket, have found more people from outside Maharashtra who were allegedly targeted by unscrupulous agents. A

MUMBAI: The Powai police, investigating the kidney racket, have found more people from outside Maharashtra who were allegedly targeted by unscrupulous agents. A source said the police have traced a few such people and will record their statements to strengthen the case.

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The police are also investigating the roles of five doctors from Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital who were arrested on Tuesday night, and whether or not they received payments.

A source said investigations so far suggest that the doctors were aware of the racket, and that the police will look into why they did nothing to halt it.

The five doctors arrested are Hiranandani hospital CEO Dr Sujeet Chaterjee, medical director Dr Anurag Naik, Dr Mukesh Shete, Dr Mukesh Shah and Dr Prakash Shetty. The source said, “They did not verify documents thoroughly. They should not have gone ahead with surgery until they had satisfactory information that the donor and recipient are related.”

Investigations have also revealed that the racketeers targeted poor people from outside the state.

The racket was exposed after the police received a tipoff and halted an illegal kidney transplant for Surat businessman Brijkishore Jaiswal, 48, at Hiranandani hospital on July 14. The would-be donor, Shobha Thakur, 42, a domestic help from Gujarat, pretended to be his wife as a kidney can only be donated by a person’s parents, grandparents, siblings, children or spouse.

Jaiswal, Thakur and Jaiswal’s son Kishan were among those arrested, along with agents Bhijendra Bisen, Bharat Sharma and Iqbal Siddiqui. The police said Bisen is the key accused, and that their investigations so far point to a nexus between agents and doctors. The number of people arrested for the racket now stands at 13.