Doctor jailed in Pune Porsche case now arrested in kidney transplant racket

Pune: The controversial former head of the Forensic Medicine department at Pune's Sassoon General Hospital has been arrested again, this time for his alleged involvement in an illegal kidney transplant racket at Ruby Hall Clinic, a prominent private hospital in the city. 

This recent arrest adds to his ongoing jail term at Yerwada Central Jail, where he has been lodged since last year for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of a 17-year-old boy involved in a fatal Porsche crash in Pune's Kalyani Nagar that claimed two lives.

As per a PTI news agency report, the Pune crime branch has now taken him into custody after arresting him on Thursday in connection with the illegal kidney transplant case. 

Also read- Sassoon Hospital Former Dean linked to 2022 Ruby Hall kidney transplant racket

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said, "We have taken Dr Ajay Taware into custody in the kidney racket case, and he will be produced before the court today." 

Medical Dialogues recently reported that Dr Taware found himself entangled in another controversy after his name emerged in connection with the 2022 Ruby Hall Clinic kidney transplant racket, where Pune police registered a case against 15 individuals, including the managing trustee of the hospital and several employees.

While the initial FIR included 15 accused, Dr Ajay Taware was recently made the co-accused in the case after the police reinvestigated the case and uncovered that Dr Taware was heading the eight-member Regional Authorisation Committee (RAC) responsible for approving transplants at the time the illegal activities were taking place, and he was the chairman of the RAC.

The scandal came to light in 2022 after a woman was made to pose as an organ receiver's spouse and was promised a good amount of money in return. A woman from Kolhapur, who was allegedly promised Rs 15 lakh, had fraudulently posed as the wife of a man who needed a transplant and donated her kidney in 2022 to a young woman patient.

In turn, the young woman’s mother donated her kidney to the man. Such a swap involving two patients and their relatives is carried out when the patients cannot receive a kidney from their own kin because of a blood group mismatch. On March 29, 2022, four days after undergoing the transplant surgery at the Ruby Hall Clinic, the woman revealed her real identity after she had a dispute over money.

Also read- Ruby Hall clinic Director, Nephrologist, Urologist,12 others booked for malpractice in kidney transplant case