Arrested middlemen had donated own kidneys fraudulently, probe finds

Two middlemen arrested in connection with alleged malpractice during a kidney transplant at a hospital here had donated a kidney each themselves in the past by fraudulently posing as relatives of the recipients Pune Police said on ThursdayThe probe of the present case in which they were arrested last week has been now handed over to the Crime Branch an official saidThe case was registered against 15 people including the managing trustee of Ruby Hall Clinic here and some hospital employees at Koregaon police station late Wednesday night based on a complaint lodged by the Maharashtra governments health departmentThe accused included a woman who donated her kidney by allegedly lying about her identityPolice have arrested Ravindra Rodge and Abhijit Gatne the alleged middlemen in the caseA police officer said that Rodge himself with the help of another person had allegedly donated his kidney to a girl in Pune some years ago by claiming falsely that she was related to himSimilarly Gatne had donated his kidney to a Bengaluru resident by posing as his uncle in 2012 he saidThe two were also involved as agents in two fraudulent kidney donations in Thane and Coimbator the official said In both cases the donors had posed as relatives of the recipients for obtaining the concerned authoritys nod for organ transplantationRodge and Gatnes police custody was extended till May 21 by a local court on WednesdayAdditional commissioner of police crime Ramnath Pokle said the case has been transferred to the crime branch unit 1 for further investigationAccording to police a woman from Kolhapur now one of the accused posed as the wife of a man who needed a kidney transplantShe donated her kidney to a young woman patient and in turn the young womans mother donated her kidney to the manSuch a swap involving two patients and their relatives is permissible when the patients cannot receive a kidney from their own kin because of a blood group mismatchOn March 29 four days after undergoing the transplant surgery at Ruby Hall Clinic the woman revealed her real identity after she had a dispute over money She had been allegedly promised Rs 15 lakh by the recipient man to pose as his wifeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever