Vizag doctor held in kidney racket case
VISAKHAPATNAM: The Odisha kidney sale racket took a new turn with the arrest of the medical director of a corporate hospital here by a police team from Odisha late Monday night.
Soon after his arrest, Dr N Prabhakar Babu, the director (medical) of Seven Hills Hospitals, complained of heart problem and was admitted to the KGH. He was shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
A special team of Mangalabag police from Odisha arrested Prabhakar Babu under the Transplantation of Human Organ Act. Five others were already arrested in Odisha in the case.
Prabhakar Babu's name cropped during the investigation of a kidney sale racket in Odisha after a donor, Namita Nayak, had complained that she had been cheated after being promised `10 lakh for donating her kidney to one Mohan Chandra Lenka of Bhubaneswar.
The kidney donation and transplantation were carried out at the Seven Hills Hospitals under the authorisation of Prabhakar Babu.
The arrest of Prabhakar Babu sent shockwaves in the medical fraternity of Visakhapatnam even as the hospital management claimed innocence.
The operation had been conducted as per norms and only after necessary documents were submitted to them showing the donor as the wife of the recipient, they said.
However, senior police officers stated that the hospital did not obtain a No Objection Certificate from either the patient or the donor nor did they take the approval of the authorisation committee appointed by the government.
'The Odisha police found that the documents (voter ID and residential certificate) submitted in the hospital were fake,' said a senior police officer.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, one of the hospital directors, Dr Kuchela Babu, said nothing wrong had happened at the hospital and the transplantation was conducted as per the norms.
News Posted: 17 June, 2014
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