A city court has rejected the anticipatory bail applications filed by two doctors allegedly involved in the kidney transplant racket uncovered at L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, Powai in July this year. The bail pleas of general surgeon Dr Veena Sewlikar and consulting pathologist Dr Suvin Shetty were rejected on the grounds that the allegations against them were serious in nature and needed to be investigated through their custodial interrogation.
The prosecution opposed the granting of bail to the two doctors claiming that they were allegedly part of the Local Authorisation Committee (LAC) which approved a kidney transplant surgery scheduled for July 14, irregularities associated with which eventually led to the racket being busted. Earlier, too, in August, the duo’s anticipatory bail applications were rejected.
The prosecution’s case was that the accused, Brijkishore Jaiswal, a 48-year-old Surat-based businessman, was the intended recipient of the kidney from 42-year-old Shobha Thakur. Jaiswal allegedly used false documents to portray Thakur as his wife, but due to the complaint, the transplant process was stopped minutes before it was to commence.
The doctors contended that they fully cooperated with police in the investigation and the police even recorded their statements on August 9 this year. Their lawyer, B.A. D’Lima, further argued that the police had already filed the chargesheet and the applicants were not experts and were not supposed to know the veracity of documents. The doctors claimed that a government representative, Dr Kadam, had identified those documents.
The prosecution, on the other hand, opposed the applications saying that prima facie, there was evidence against these two doctors showing their involvement in the alleged crime.
