Mumbai: Five doctors including a CEO of a privately-run hospital in Mumbai were arrested for alleged involvement in a kidney transplant racket that came to light on July 14. They were produced before the Andheri Metropolitan Court on Wednesday and are to remain in police custody until August 13.

On Tuesday night, Mumbai Police arrested Dr Sujit Chatterjee, CEO of L.H. Hiranandani Hospital in suburban Powai, Medical Director Anurag Naik and three other medicos Prakash Shetty, Mukesh Shah and Mukesh Shetye.

Mumbai Police spokesperson, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Dudhe, said, “Based on the report of the appropriate authority, the Powai police arrested five accused at 8.30pm on Tuesday including the CEO and the Medical Director of the Hiranandani Hospital. They have been charged under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.” They are facing allegations of neglect.

Advocate Abad Ponda, who represented the five accused doctors, argued in court that the main accused in the case, who had forged all the documents, has already been granted pre-arrest bail and is out of custody. The police will have to show some material as to why the doctors were arrested. He also argued that it was not the responsibility of the doctors to find if the kidney recipient and the donor were related and find whether their documents were forged or not.

The illegal trade and kidney sales came to light when the racket was busted at the hospital on July 14 when some political party and union members and social workers alerted the management of the hospital that transplants were being conducted using fake documents. The racket became known only after a donor, who was cheated by the mastermind, Bhejendra Bisen, approached the Indian National Trade Union Congress two days earlier.

After the management was alerted, a surgery on a patient Brijkishore Jaiswal, admitted to the hospital, was stopped when it was found that he was to get a kidney transplant from a woman from Surat who was masquerading as his wife. It was unearthed that the mastermind, Bisen, would hire agents to scout for possible donors in Gujarat and would forge documents to show that the donors were related to the recipients. So far, police have arrested 14 people including the kingpin, whose racket had spread to Gujarat, Jaiswal, who was to receive the kidney, his fake wife, a donor, and a hospital associate.

According to the Act, a near relative — spouse, children, grandchildren, siblings, parents and grandparents — need permission of the doctor-in-charge to donate his/her organ.