Accused had been issued warning letter

A month before the Powai police busted the kidney donation racket at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, wherein fraudulent donors were arranged for kidney donations, the private health facility’s medical director, Anurag Naik, had issued a “warning letter” in June this year to the main accused, transplant coordinator Nilesh Kamble. The hospital administration, however, allegedly only ‘counselled’ him instead of undertaking stricter action.

The “warning letter” was served on him in the light of an earlier letter from the Directorate of Medical Association and Research (DMER) to Hiranandani hospital in June, informing them about a kidney racket in their hospital. The DMER had, on June 3, sent a letter to the hospital warning them that an organ donation racket was underway. This letter, addressed to Dr Naik and Dr Sujit Chatterjee, the CEO of the hospital, had explicitly said that the medical social worker of the hospital, Kamble, was allegedly accepting cash to facilitate certain transplant cases.

The Powai police, in its chargesheet, included the final report submitted by the DHS, which includes the statements of five arrested doctors of the hospital. In the statement of Dr Naik, he said, “On June 10, we issued a warning letter to Kamble and sent a copy of the same to the DMER on July 19.” Dr Chatterjee confirmed the same, adding that Kamble, after being served the letter, was sent for counselling.