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Hiranandani kidney racket: Is state health department covering up for its member?

Updated on: 12 August,2016 10:31 AM IST  | 
Vinod Kumar Menon | vinodm@mid-day.com

Blamed Hiranandani Hospital officials for clearing bogus transplant documents, but is silent on one of its own members who signed off on the paperwork

Hiranandani kidney racket: Is state health department covering up for its member?

Quick to blame the CEO and medical director of Hiranandani Hospital for allowing the kidney racket to thrive right under their noses, the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) has remained silent on the role of one of its own members who had also signed off on the illegal transplant procedure that eventually blew the lid off the scam.


Also read: Hiranandani kidney racket: Hospital sees drastic drop in patients


The health official has allegedly gone missing since then.


Hiranandani Hospital
Hiranandani Hospital

Just yesterday mid-day reported that Hiranandani’s CEO Sujit Chatterjee and medical director Anurag Naik were declared guilty of negligence in the DHS report. Both officials had allowed the illegal transplants to take place without verifying whether the paperwork was authentic. But it seems DHS member Dr Kadam is equally guilty of this charge.

Readers might recall that the scam was uncovered on July 14, after the cops stopped a transplant procedure midway.

Gujarat businessman Brijkishore Jaiswal was trying to pass off a woman named Shobha Thakur as his wife so she could donate her kidney to him. In their application, they had claimed to be residents of Malabar Hill. Since the case was city-based, it was scrutinised by the hospital authorisation committee, comprising four members, including the medical director and a DHS member — in this case, Dr Kadam.

One of the doctors from Hiranandani Hospital said, “The forged documents were so convincing that nobody could make out that they were fake. If even the DHS representative could not ascertain the authenticity of the documents, then how could anyone else? He has not come to the hospital since the matter was reported.”

A senior nephrologist said, “While the police were quick to arrest the CEO and medical director, they have not even questioned Dr Kadam.”

In response to this, DCP (Zone X) Vinayak Deshmukh said, “We have asked DHS to submit their findings on all others who were part of the committee, including the DHS member. According to their feedback we will take appropriate action.”

The Other Side
Dr Mohan Jadhav, director of Health Services, said, “We have found out that the concerned DHS official’s mother passed away. Hence, he had to go out of Mumbai. I am told that he has just resumed duty today (Thursday) and Dr Gauri Rathod - who is assistant director at DHS and the head of the transplant department — has been assigned the task to get his statement recorded before the committee.”

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