Dr Ajay Taware, the former medical superintendent of Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital, who is already in judicial custody in connection with the high-profile Porsche crash case, was on Thursday arrested in a separate case linked to a kidney transplant racket unearthed at a prominent private hospital.
The Pune Crime Branch has taken Taware into custody from Yerwada Central Jail, where he was lodged for allegedly tampering with blood samples of the 17-year-old boy accused in the Kalyani Nagar Porsche crash that claimed two lives. The latest arrest pertains to an alleged kidney transplant scam that surfaced at Ruby Hall Clinic in 2022.
“We have taken Dr Ajay Taware into custody in the kidney racket case and he will be produced before the court today,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Nikhil Pingale.
Taware had served as the head of the Regional Authorisation Committee which had cleared several kidney transplant procedures in 2022. It is alleged that during his tenure, one such transplant violated established medical and legal protocols.
The Pune police had in May 2022 registered a case against 15 individuals, including the managing trustee of Ruby Hall Clinic and several staff members, following a complaint that one of the donors had posed as the spouse of a recipient to enable an illegal organ swap.
Also read: Pune Porsche crash: Year on, kins await 'fast-tracked' justice
Investigations revealed that a woman from Kolhapur was allegedly lured with a promise of ₹15 lakh to pose as the wife of a man who required a kidney transplant. She subsequently donated her kidney to a young woman patient. In a reciprocal arrangement, the patient’s mother donated her kidney to the same man.
Such cross-donations are medically allowed under the swap transplant provision, which is employed when the original donors and recipients are medically incompatible due to blood group mismatches. However, this provision requires strict scrutiny and transparency under the Human Organ Transplant Act.
According to police, the transplant took place in March 2022, but discrepancies came to light when the woman donor, four days after the surgery, revealed her true identity following a monetary dispute.
The fresh charges against Taware deepen the controversies surrounding him. His earlier arrest had sparked outrage when it was revealed that blood samples of the minor involved in the Porsche accident were allegedly swapped in an attempt to influence the toxicology report.
With both cases now under active investigation, police are likely to seek extended custody of Taware for interrogation into his role and possible complicity in the organ transplant scam.
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