Daijiworld Media Network- Pune

Pune, May 29: In a sensational development, the Pune police on Thursday arrested Dr Ajay Taware, former medical superintendent of the city’s Sassoon General Hospital, for his alleged involvement in a kidney transplant racket that rocked one of Pune’s premier private medical institutions, Ruby Hall Clinic.

Dr Taware, who is already behind bars in Yerwada Central Jail for his alleged role in tampering with blood samples of the minor accused in the infamous Porsche crash case, has now been taken into custody by the Pune Crime Branch in connection with the 2022 organ transplant scam.

Confirming the arrest, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said, “We have taken Dr Ajay Taware into custody in the kidney racket case. He will be produced before the court today.”

Back in 2022, Dr Taware headed the Regional Authorisation Committee which was responsible for approving organ transplants. It has now emerged that the committee, under his leadership, allegedly turned a blind eye to fraudulent documentation submitted during a suspicious kidney swap surgery conducted at Ruby Hall Clinic.

The case, registered in May 2022, involves as many as 15 accused including senior staff and the managing trustee of the hospital. The incident came to light when a woman from Kolhapur, who had been promised a sum of Rs 15 lakh, donated her kidney under the false pretext of being the spouse of a patient. Her organ was transplanted to a young woman, whose mother in turn donated her kidney to the supposed husband of the Kolhapur donor, making it a case of swap donation.

However, just four days after the surgery, on March 29, 2022, the woman revealed her true identity following a financial dispute, thereby exposing the racket.

The Pune Crime Branch is now intensifying investigations into the racket, which has raised serious questions about transparency and ethics in organ transplant procedures at leading medical institutions.