Mumbai: Maharashtra social worker (MSW) at state-run JJ Hospital and coordinator of the zonal transplant authorisation committee, Tushar Savarkar; and transplant coordinator at privately-run Raheja Hospital, Sachin Salve have been arrested for accepting Rs 1.5 lakh for clearing a kidney transplant file of a patient. The duo was caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for accepting the bribe, the amount of which came to Rs 80 lakh after negation.
The patient, identified as Jamaluddin Khan (40), both of whose kidneys have failed, was in urgent need of a kidney transplant. One of his relatives was willing to donate a kidney. So, the scrutiny committee of JJ Hospital’s organ transplant committee raised a few queries to make sure that the donor was related to the patient.
According to Jamalu-ddin’s brother, Zaqir Hussain, Jamaluddin had a kidney ailment for three years and suffered a renal failure around four mon-ths ago after which he was on regular dialysis.
Hussain said, “There is no one in his family to earn so our sister-in-law willingly came to donate a kidney. We were then moved to Raheja Hospital in Mahim for further procedures, where we met the transplant coordinator, Salve, who asked for Rs 10,000 to fix a meeting with Savarkar to move the file to speed up work.”
Savarkar and Salve, who were hand-in-glove, approached the patient’s family to get the file cleared for Rs 1.5 lakh. At that point, ACB sleuths caught the duo red-handed on Monday when they approached the patient’s relatives to claim part payment of Rs 80,000.
The Superintendent of JJ Hospital Dr Sanjay Surase said, “We have initiated a detailed inquiry against the person concerned, and the matter is with the ACB. If found guilty, the person should be punished.”
