No criminal intent, only careless

Govt representative, Dr BK Kadam, who was also part of the authorisation committee, has only been found careless in scrutinising the documents

Initial findings of the committee that is going into the authorisation process followed at Hiranandani Hospital has revealed that the government representative is not guilty of any criminal negligence and has only been careless in giving approval to the kidney transplant.

The three-member committee had been appointed by the state government to check on the verification process followed by the hospital

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT SCAM

committee that gave permission for the kidney transplant. Following a complaint, the Powai police had stopped the transplant and later inquiries revealed that the documents produced by the donor and the recipient had been forged.

The committee had first inquired into the roles of the five doctors from the hospital who had given permission and had found them to be guilty. As a result, these doctors were arrested by the Powai police for their role and were later released on bail, sources said.

The committee later inquired into the role of the government representative, Dr BK Kadam, who was also part of the authorisation committee. Highly-placed sources revealed that they have not found Dr Kadam guilty of any criminal activity, only careless in scrutinising the documents. “He was shown the documents only five minutes before the approval was given for the transplant and hence, he cannot be held responsible for the mistake that occurred in giving permission for the transplant,” said a senior government official. However, the administration has already taken action and has transferred Dr Kadam out of Mumbai and a departmental inquiry is also going to be held against him, sources said.

When queried on this issue, Dr Gauri Rathod, assistant director of health services, and who is also on the inquiry committee said that they are still in the process of finalising the report. ”Once the report is finalised we will submit this to the administration for further action,” she added.

Sources said that it is surprising that the authorisation committee did not bother to check the Xerox copies of the documents submitted by the donor and the recipient against the originals and took them at face value. “It is standard practice that the copies have to be verified against the original papers and only when they match, the permission is given for a transplant,” the official said.

Senior officials revealed that the state health services are also inquiring into the permission given by the authorisation committee into two other cases. “Both these cases are from Gujarat and while one is the case of a brother to sister kidney donation, the other one is a sister to sister donation,” he said.