Hiranandani kidney racket: I have done no wrong, says state official who cleared illegal transplant

The state official who signed off on the illegal kidney transplant that was busted on July 14 has finally resurfaced for the first time since the racket came to light for an exclusive chat with mid-day, where he claimed he had done no wrong.

Dr BK Kadam was on the panel that approved the illegal transplant that was busted at Hiranandani Hospital on July 14. File pic

Yesterday, mid-day had highlighted how the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) was quick to blame Hiranandani Hospital's CEO and medical director for clearing the bogus transplant documents, but remained silent on the role of its own member, Dr BK Kadam, assistant director of Health Services (Medicine). If there was negligence, Dr Kadam shares the blame too, since he was part of the four-member panel that gave a green signal to the transplant on July 12.

"I have done no wrong. I only replaced a colleague who was on leave on that day, therefore I had to attend the hospital authorisation committee meeting at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital on July 12," Dr Kadam told this reporter on the phone.

Three cases were put up before the hospital authorisation committee that day, and although he could not recall the order of the cases, Dr Kadam said the panel spent nearly 30 minutes on each file. "The screening started around 2 pm and we spent nearly 30 minutes per case. The cases were minutely checked and all the documents were examined. We even put questions to the recipient and donor, who gave us satisfactory replies. At the end, we cleared all three cases as per the norms," he said.

Dr Kadam said, "As a DHS member, I have been part of hospital authorisation committees before, and have attended more than 20 such meetings, in which 15 transplant cases had been approved, while four to five were rejected."

Disappearing act
While Hiranandani's CEO Sujit Chatterjee and medical director Anurag Naik have been arrested, Dr Kadam is yet to even be questioned by either the DHS or the police. Even after he was summoned by the DHS committee on August 9, he failed to turn up.

"Post clearing the transplant papers, I had to leave for my hometown in Nanded, as my mother had passed away on July 19. I resumed duty only after July 24," he said, explaining his disappearance. There is a slight discrepancy in the joining date, however, as the director of health services, Dr Mohan Jadhav had earlier told mid-day that Kadam had rejoined service on Thursday.

Asked why he did not present himself before the DHS committee, Kadam added, "I was unaware about the formation of any such committee, until I received the summons asking me to be present on August 9. But that very day, there was an urgent meeting called by my superior officer. After the meeting, I rushed to the DMER office at St George's hospital, but the committee members had already left."

Kadam added that he approached the DHS committee on Thursday and was told to be present for questioning on Tuesday. "I will appear before the committee members on August 16 and will present my side of the case," he said.
This was also confirmed by the DHS official mid-day spoke to.

Powai police will also summon him for questioning, said ACP AS Shaikh, adding, "We want to question Dr Kadam as he was part of the committee."