Organ transplantation case: Jaipur police arrest two doctors of Fortis
Two doctors Jitendra Goswami, a nephrologist, and Sandeep Gupta, an urologist, at the Fortis Escorts Hospital were arrested.
Jaipur: Rajasthan’s Jaipur police on Saturday arrested two doctors for their alleged involvement in the illegal organ transplantation case, a day after the arrest of a male nurse of the hospital’s nephrology department, said the official familiar with the matter.
The two doctors identified as Dr Jitendra Goswami, a nephrologist, and Dr Sandeep Gupta, a urologist at the Fortis Escorts Hospital, were arrested after police found evidence of their direct involvement.
“We have found some evidence that they were probably in direct touch with the middlemen and co-ordinators arrested before. Multiple transactions might have also taken place among them. However, we cannot disclose much at this moment. More doctors are on our radar and might be arrested soon in the next few days. Further investigation is underway,” said a senior police official familiar with the matter.
The development came after a four-hour interrogation with each of those two doctors on Saturday morning whose names were cropped in during the interrogation of the Fortis’s male nurse, Bhanu Pratap, arrested on Friday.
“It was found that Pratap, a native of Baran district, used to keep the donors and receivers in a rented accommodation near the hospital and was also in touch with the two doctors, the hospital’s organ transplant co-ordinators, and also some middlemen of the Med Safar Private Limited,” said an officer.
The two doctors on Saturday were arrested under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (fraud), 471 (forging documents), 370 (trafficking of persons), and 120 B (party to criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had also seized nine mobile phones of six doctors from Fortis, Eternal Heart Care Center, and Manipal Hospital as “a few chats were found suspiciously deleted from their phones,” said an ACB officer investigating the monetary fraud took place in the case.
Saturday’s fresh development also took the toll of arrests in the case to 13 in the last two months.
The matter had come to light after the ACB caught the assistant administrative officer of Jaipur’s state-owned Sawai Man Singh Hospital, Gaurav Singh, on March 18 while accepting a Rs.70,000 bribe from EHCC transplant co-ordinator Anil Joshi for issuing fake NOCs (No Objection Certificate).
Later, ACB also arrested the two organ transplant coordinators of Fortis Escorts Hospital, Vinod Singh and Giriraj Sharma, whose names came up during the probe. Sawai Man Singh Hospital is responsible for issuing NOCs across 12 hospitals in the state licensed to conduct transplantation surgeries.
“Gaurav has been issuing fake NOCs since 2021 by forging the signature of the members of the state-level authorisation committee of Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Hospital”, said additional commissioner of police Gandhinagar Gopal Dhaka, the investigating officer of the case.
On April 14, five Bangladeshi nationals, including three receivers Muhammed Ahssanul (31), Nurul Islam (56), and Syed Akeeb Muhammed (25), and two donors Shamim Mehndi Hassan (34) and Muhammed Azad Hussain (30) were arrested by Gurugram police for getting the transplantation surgery at Jaipur’s Fortis Hospital based on such fake NOCs without having any blood relation.
Following the arrest, the Rajasthan Health Department formally lodged two complaints against Fortis and EHCC on April 17 and 21 at Jawahar Circle police station and Airport police station, respectively.
It was later also found that Murtaza Ansari, a member of Med Safar company with whom the Fortis signed an MoU in 2023 for the supply of donors and receivers from Bangladesh, brought those five to Jaipur and shifted to Gurugram later in March after the ACB arrested Gaurav and other co-ordinators.
Though Ansari is absconding, the police on May 3 arrested the director, Suman Jana, and an employee, Sukhamay Nandi, of the Med Safar company from West Bengal.
“We affirm our commitment to the Procedures (SOPs) set by SOTTO for all transplant operations, ensuring compliance with required approvals from relevant domestic and international authorities. We are awaiting clarity from the relevant authorities on this matter. We have cooperated fully with the authorities throughout the investigation and will continue to do so in the future,” Fortis said in a statement.
Recommended Topics