Clinic owner arrested in kidney removal case

NHRC INTERVENES IN THE CASE, SEEKS REPLY FROM STATE’S HEALTH DEPARTMENT

PATNA: Owner of an unauthorised clinic in Muzaffarpur of Bihar was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly removing both kidneys of a woman without her knowledge, a case that has prompted the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene and seek a reply from the state’s health department.

Police said Pawan Kumar, owner of Shubhkant nursing home in Muzaffarpur town where kidneys of Sunita Devi (30) were removed in early September, is the prime accused in the case. The other accused is Dr R K Singh, a doctor at the clinic, who is still at large.

According to police, Sunita Devi underwent a surgery for uterus removal at the clinic on September 3, but continued to suffer from stomach pain thereafter. On September 7, she finally went to the state-run Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) in Muzaffarpur where the doctors, after conducting tests, told her family that both her kidneys had been removed.

Later, an FIR (first information report) was lodged against Pawan Kumar and Dr R K Singh at Bariyarpur Police Station on the basis of statement of Sunita Devi’s mother Tetri Devi under sections of Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The woman is a scheduled caste.

Initial probe revealed there was no operation theatre in the clinic, which lacked even basic facilities, police said.

Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Jayant Kant told HT that a police team raided Bariyarpur village and arrested Pawan Kumar on Wednesday. “During the investigation, police found that the clinic neither has its registration number nor are the degrees of its doctors displayed on a board. We will soon nab the absconding doctor,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sunita Devi has been undergoing regular dialysis at the SKMCH while she is awaiting the much-needed kidney transplant.

Earlier this month, the NHRC had issued a notice to the principal secretary of the state health department in the case and sought a reply within four weeks about the action taken in this regard.