M A I N   N E W S

Scrutinise left-out cases in kidney racket, DIGs asked
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 12
More heads are likely to roll in the multi-crore kidney transplant racket even as the state government has directed the DIGs of all six ranges, including Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Border (Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts), Faridkot and Ferozepore to conduct range-wise left-out cases.

Members of the Special Investigation Team, including Mr S.K. Sharma IG (Jalandhar) and Mr Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, SP (City) have been excluded from various committees constituted for scrutinising the left-out cases. SIT had submitted its report to the state government but the Punjab Human Rights Organisation and veteran CPI leader S.P. Dang have found chinks in the investigation.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr S.K. Sharma, IG (Jalandhar), said while the IG (Crime), Chandigarh, had been given about 1000 case files, an equal number would be scrutinised by the DIGs of different ranges. When asked why members of the SIT had been debarred from scrutiny of the left-out cases, he said members of SIT were already busy in preparing challans and other work related to the kidney racket. Interestingly, Mr Rajan Gupta, IG whose name reportedly figured in the report submitted by SIT is in the Crime Branch which has been directed to conduct the investigation into about 1000 cases. Though Mr Gupta, told this correspondent that he had already urged the ADGP (Crime), Mr S.K. Attri, not to handover any file relating to the same due to “professional” reasons, however, it is felt that he (Mr Gupta) would be in a position to influence the investigations. Mr Gupta’s then Personal Security Officer, Mr Gurdial Ram (DSP), whose name also figured in the report had absconded.

Mr G.S. Sahota, DIG (Border Range) has already been given 219 files related to kidney transplant of unrelated cases. Mr Sahota has constituted a five-member committee, including Mr Shiv Kumar Sharma, an IPS officer SP (City) which will meet tomorrow in the office of DIG to plan next course of action.

The letter addressed by ADGP (Law and Order), Mr A.A. Siddiqi to the officials concerned said out of the total 2,384 cases of kidney transplant held in the state since the enactment of the Human Organ Transplantation Act, 1994, the left-out cases needed to be scrutinised so that the task could be completed at the earliest. He said the Crime Branch would deal with the cases of recipients who did not belong to Punjab.

It may be mentioned here that while SIT had arrested doctors, middlemen and donors in Amritsar no action was taken in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and other districts. However, IG (Jalandhar Range), Mr S.K. Sharma, said hospitals in Jalandhar had already completed formalities, including videography of the donors and recipients and hence SIT did not take any action in such cases.