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

Pune: Police have registered a case against 15 persons, including the managing trustee of the Ruby Hall Clinic, a leading private hospital in the city, and some of its employees in connection with alleged malpractice during a kidney transplant procedure in March this year, an official said on Thursday. 

The offence was registered at Koregaon Park police station late on Wednesday evening based on a complaint lodged by the Maharashtra government's health department, he said.

Also Read:Organ Donation Scam: Licence of Ruby Hall Clinic Suspended

"We have registered the case against 15 persons, including the Ruby Hall Clinic's managing trustee Parvez Grant and the staffers of the hospital. They also include the woman who donated her kidney, the recipient man, and his wife," he said.

The FIR was filed by Dr. Sanjog Kadam, deputy director of medical services, Pune. In connection with this malpractice 15 persons have been booked from the hospital which includes the Managing Trustee of Ruby Hall Clinic Dr. Purvez K Grant, deputy medical director Dr. Rebecca John, legal advisor Manjusha Kulkarni, consulting nephrologist Dr. Abhay Sadre, urologists Dr. Bhupat Bhati and Dr. Himesh Gandhi and transplant coordinator Surekha Joshi.

Ruby Hall Clinic's managing trustee Dr. Purvez K Grant said they were being harassed, reports The Indian Express.

"The Ruby Hall Clinic's internal competent authority for document scrutinisation that comprised deputy medical director Dr. Rebecca John, legal advisor Manjusha Kulkarni, consulting nephrologist Dr. Abhay Sadre, urologists Dr Bhupat Bhati and Dr Himesh Gandhi, and transplant coordinator Surekha Joshi, did not thoroughly scrutinize the documents and sent them to the Regional Authorisation Committee at Sassoon General Hospital, thus misleading the committee. As the alleged transplant malpractice took place at Ruby Hall Clinic, the managing trustee Dr. Purvez Grant is equally responsible," states the FIR, which was taken in Marathi.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 465, 468, 471 (all pertaining to forgery), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, he said.

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 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, four days after undergoing the transplant surgery at the Ruby Hall Clinic, the woman had revealed her real identity after she had had a dispute over money.

The hospital had then alerted the police, which in turn reported the incident to the health department.

The department had later suspended the hospital's registration for organ transplantation, however, the Bombay High Court had stayed that order.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported on this matter that the High Court bench has granted a stay and noted that it was the state authorisation committee which has to verify the documents and identity of patients, and it is not the responsibility of the hospital.

The functioning of the regional organ transplant authorization committee was also temporarily suspended.

Also Read:Pune: Malpractice in Kidney transplant procedure at Ruby Hall Clinic, Probe Launched