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THE TRANSPLANT coordinator at the L H Hiranandani hospital, where a kidney racket was busted last week, allegedly charged Rs 8 lakh to facilitate the kidney transplant surgery scheduled on July 15, suspect police. During searches carried out at the residence of Nilesh Kamble soon after he was arrested on Saturday, the police found Rs 8 lakh, making them suspicious of why he had kept the cash at home.
In all, as per the police probe, the accused had taken around Rs 30 lakh from the kidney recipient, of which the other accused had been promised a certain percentage. Transplants that took place at the hospital earlier are now under the police scanner. A senior officer said they would check the documents submitted in the past cases.
Meanwhile, sources said, a Powai police team that had gone to Gujarat, detained two persons there. It is suspected that the two were working at the behest of the mastermind, Bhijendra Bhisen. “We suspect their role was to convince the donor to donate her kidney,” said a source.
Senior police officers, however, refused to confirm the detentions.
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On Thursday morning, a social worker in Powai had been tipped off by a hospital insider who also furnished copies of forged documents submitted by the patient, Brijkishor Jaiswal, 48, a textiles agent from Surat, showing donor Shobha as his wife Rekha Devi. The Powai police subsequently registered a case against Bhisen, who had been arrested in 2007 as well for running a similar racket.
Jaiswal and Shobha were placed under arrest minutes before the surgery was to start. Jaiswal’s son Kisan Jaiswal was arrested too, besides Bhisen and two agents Bharat Sharma and Iqbal Mohammad Siddiqui. Kamble was arrested on Saturday.
It has emerged during the investigation that Bhisen had agents who for a small commission would scout for donors. After they got a donor, they would arrange for forged papers to show that the donor was a blood relative of the recipient, as mandated by the laws governing transplants in India. During the probe, the police detained one Khwaja from Mumbra whose job was to get these forged documents prepared. “Khwaja, during his interrogation, has said the actual forged documents were made by someone else on a computer. He claims he is just a facilitator. We are also looking for the person who made the forged documents,” said the officer.
The police are hoping the interrogation of the two agents detained from Gujarat should help them get more clarity on how the donor and the recipient came in touch with the accused. Apart from this, the Powai police are also taking the help of Crime Branch officers who had probed the 2007 case. “Bhisen was one of the main accused in that case. We are getting more information from officers who had probed that case,” said an officer supervising the Powai probe.
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