Odisha kidney racket : Vizag hospital violated law, says Police Commissioner

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, June 17:

“There has been violation of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act by the Seven Hills Hospitals, Vizag, which has not properly adhered to the provisions of the Act”, said twin city commissioner Dr RP Sharma in his comments to the media on the arrest of a director of the Seven Hills Hospitals in Vishakhapatnam in connection with the Odisha kidney sale racket case.

While saying that the investigations were in progress and that the DMET Sunamali Bag was being interrogated in the matter, Dr Sharma said a ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) is required in case of organ transplantations taking place outside the state.

The commissioner further said the concerned hospital is required to take the approval of the authorization committee, which has not been done in this case. He said rules and procedures as prescribed in the ‘Transplantation of Human Organs Act’ have not been followed by the authorities of the Seven Hills Hospital.

A special team of Mangalabag police on Monday arrested Dr N Prabhakar Babu, Director (Medical) of Seven Hills Hospitals in Vizag.

However, the team will have to wait for some days at Vishakhapatnam as Babu has been admitted to a private hospital there as he reportedly fell ill as soon after he was nabbed. He has been booked under Transplantation of Human Organ Act.

The so-called kidney ‘donation’ by a woman from Cuttack and its transplantation was carried out in the Seven Hills hospital.

It may be recalled that the modus operandi of the racket came to the fore when the police on June 1 took up the case of Namita Nayak who had given her kidney to Mohan Chandra Lenka of Bhubaneswar for Rs 10 lakh.

In course of investigation, police came to know that all documents were forged as the donor and the recipient were unrelated and the transplant was performed at the Seven Hills Hospital on April 3.