Pune Porsche case accused doctor now held in kidney transplant racket
Pune (PTI): Police on Thursday arrested Pune's Sassoon General Hospital's former medical superintendent Dr Ajay Taware in connection with an alleged kidney transplant racket at a leading private hospital here, officials said.
Taware is currently lodged at the Yerwada Central Jail here following arrest last year for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of a 17-year-old boy accused of crashing a Porsche car into a motorbike in Pune's Kalyani Nagar and killing two persons.
The city crime branch has now taken him into custody in connection with the 2022 kidney transplant racket at the Ruby Hall Clinic, a leading private hospital here, police said.
"We have taken Dr Ajay Taware into custody in the kidney racket case and he will be produced before the court today," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said.
In 2022, Taware was head of the Regional Authorisation Committee that approved kidney transplants.
The Pune police in May 2022 registered a case against 15 persons, including the managing trustee of the Ruby Hall Clinic and some of its employees, in connection with an alleged malpractice during a kidney transplant procedure in March that year.
A woman from Kolhapur, who was allegedly promised Rs 15 lakh, had fraudulently posed as the wife of a man who needed a transplant and donated her kidney in 2022 to a young woman patient. In turn, the young woman’s mother donated her kidney to the man.
Such a swap involving two patients and their relatives is carried out when the patients cannot receive a kidney from their own kin because of a blood group mismatch.
On March 29, 2022, four days after undergoing the transplant surgery at the Ruby Hall Clinic, the woman revealed her real identity after she had a dispute over money.
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NIA court to complete framing of charges against 2010 hand-chopping case accused on May 15
Kochi (PTI): A special court here will complete proceedings for framing charges against the prime accused in the 2010 hand-chopping case involving professor T J Joseph, in which PFI activists were accused of attacking him at Muvattupuzha.
Ernakulam Special Court for NIA cases judge P K Mohandas, on April 30, heard the arguments of counsel for accused Savad and Shafeer C and decided to proceed with framing charges against the duo.
A group chopped off Thodupuzha Newman College professor Joseph's right hand in July 2010, accusing him of religious blasphemy in a question paper he had prepared.
The case, later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), resulted in the conviction of 19 accused.
The first accused, Savad, who allegedly chopped off Joseph’s palm, was arrested in Berram in Mattannur, Kannur, in January 2024, where he had allegedly been hiding under the pseudonym Shajahan.
The NIA also arrested Shafeer, who allegedly arranged shelter and provided logistical support to Savad at Chakkad and Mattannur in Kannur since 2020.
On April 30, the court heard the counsel for the accused and the NIA prosecutor on framing charges against the duo.
"On going through the documents and evidence in the case and on hearing the counsel for the accused and the prosecutor, I am of the opinion that there are grounds for presuming that the first accused has committed offences punishable under provisions of the IPC, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and that the second accused has committed offences punishable under the IPC and the UAPA, and there are materials for framing charges under these provisions against the accused," the court said.
The court directed that Savad be produced and Shafeer, who is on bail, appear before it on May 15 for recording their pleas as part of the charge-framing process.
After framing the charges, the court will schedule the trial in the case.
