Kidney scam: Scanner on top official

State health minister Dr Deepak Sawant on Thursday admitted to The Asian Age that there were major flaws in the manner in which top official Dr B.K. Kadam allegedly gave his approval to proposed kidney transplants at L.H. Hiranandani Hospital in Powai. Mandatory verification via video conferencing was not conducted properly, no specific questions were asked, and the process was recorded on a mobile phone alone. The Directorate of Health Services (DHS) will submit its report on the senior officer’s role to Dr Sawant by Thursday.

The DHS committee investigating the kidney racket on Tuesday grilled Dr Kadam — who is an assistant director at DHS and was part of the local authorisation committee for transplants at the hospital — and will submit its report to the police and state health ministry in two days. Among the details that emerged were ambiguity on Dr Kadam’s part in giving the green signal to kidney transplants without verifying documents of the donor and recipient; conducting video-conferencing negligently without asking specific questions that are mandatory for kidney transplants; and recording the video on a mobile phone, which is not valid in itself. Further course of action will be decided based on the report submitted by the DHS.

Dr Sawant said, “There were loopholes when Dr Kadam signed documents during kidney transplants. I am personally keeping a tab on this issue. The inquiry is still on and after getting the complete details, the guilty will have to face appropriate government action.”

The local authorisation committee, of which Dr Kadam was a part, cleared documents of both the recipient Brijkishore Thakur and donor Shobha Thakur, who hail from Gujarat. On July 14, the day the kidney transplant was scheduled, the Powai police busted the racket. The local authorisation committee has six members on the board assigned by a hospital and scrutinises identification proof and verifies documents to approve a live organ transplant. In this case, Dr Kadam was representing the state government at a July 12 meeting where three kidney transplant cases were approved. Dr Kadam has been transferred to Nanded as the medical superintendent of its government hospital.

Cops question informant The Powai police on Thursday recorded the statement of Sunder Singh, one of the informants who helped the police bust the kidney racket at Hiranandani Hospital. Singh, who had also been conned by Brijendra Bisen into selling his kidney, was alleged to have later joined Bisen in the racket. Recently, the Powai police had said that they were looking for Singh and if found to be an accused and involved in supplying donors to the racket, he would be arrested. Sources in the Powai police confirmed that they had found Singh and had recorded his statement for over three hours. \"He was questioned about his connections with Bisen and his role in the alleged racket,\" said a police source.