M A I N   N E W S

Cops, councillors under scanner
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 17
The sword of Damocles in the infamous kidney racket that has so far fallen on doctors alone is all set to target several of the hundreds of policemen and municipal councillors in the state, especially Ludhiana, who had attested the details of donors and recipients through police verification and affidavits submitted to the authorisation committee clearing the kidney transplantations in the DMCH and other hospitals in the district.

Contrary to the system in Amritsar, the authorisation committee in Ludhiana had specially laid down a procedure that the particulars, including the addresses and the reasons of donating the kidney, should be cleared through police verification. The affidavits of the municipal corporation regarding the address of the donor and the closeness with the recipient’s family was also required. The kidney donors and recipients belonged to different parts of the state.

Police sources disclosed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the kidney racket cases would focus on the role played by police officers, who cleared dubious donors.

The IG, Jalandhar, Mr S.K. Sharma, the main investigating officer in the case, confirmed to TNS over the phone that the SIT was putting the police officers conducting the verification of the donors for kidney transplantation under the scanner and strict action would be taken against the guilty.

He said the affidavits given by councillors as verification of the addresses of donors would also be put under the scanner. ‘‘It remains to be seen if they gave the affidavits knowingly or out of humanity alone’’, said a reliable source attached to the investigation team.

The sources informed that 70 per cent of the 492 kidney transplantation cases in Ludhiana involved donors who were not related.

There is evidence that the police verification was not done as per the merit of the case and several ‘purchased’ donors helped by middle-men, allegedly like Amritpal Rajasthani, managed to get the case cleared.

The issue of such ‘false’ police verification had hogged the limelight in 2001 when three labourers from Nepal lodged an FIR regarding the alleged racket in which their kidneys were removed. They were also cleared in police verification. Jagsher Singh, one such donor in the Pammian kidney case, was also cleared even though he admits that the address given in the file of the donor was not his.

Interestingly, the Ludhiana police had stopped conducted police verification in kidney transplantation cases last year after the kidney racket was exposed. The police had gone on record that no such procedure was laid down under the kidney transplantation Act and as nothing of this sort was done elsewhere, the Ludhiana police would also not do it henceforth. An inquiry was also ordered to investigate the role of cops in false verifications, especially in the cases of the three labourers from Nepal. The outcome of the inquiry is still awaited.

There was, in fact, a war of words between the police and the authorisation committee last year. Both pointed fingers at each other for the racket.

While the police said the authorisation committee failed to check the ‘purchased’ donor, committee members said they acted as per the police verification and the affidavits of the councillors.

A family from Patiala had taken a kidney from one of the Nepalese labourers. The recipient died a few months later. However, the Ludhiana police caught two relatives for giving false affidavits regarding the relationship with the donor and his address.

Principal suspended
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17
The Punjab Government today suspended Dr O.P. Mahajan, Principal of Government Medical College, Amritsar. Dr Mahajan, who was Chairman of the Kidney Transplant Authorisation Committee, was arrested by the Amritsar police in connection with the Kidney scam on January 12.

Mr Rajesh Chhabra, Principal Secretary, Department of Medical Research and Education, confirming the suspension, said efforts were being made to investigate the possible involvement of other members of the Committee in the scam. He said that since, Dr Mahajan had taken over as Chairman of the committee only one and a half years ago, the role of earlier chairmen would also be investigated as the scam had been going on for the past five days.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Nurses Association has urged the state government to cancel the medical licences of “criminal doctors” involved in the scandal. Ms Jiwan Preet Kaur, president of the association, stated today that supporters of the doctors involved in the scandal were misusing the name of the nurses’ association. She said the association had nothing to do with the protest demonstration organised in support of the accused.