Dr Shrikant Babhulgaonkar, asst director DHS, will be questioned by the Directorate of Health Services; says he doesn’t remember the case
The name of another government official from the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), has cropped up in the investigation of the second illegal transplant case in the Hiranandani Hospital kidney transplant racket. Dr Shrikant Babhulgaonkar, assistant director of DHS, who was the government representative in the authorisation committee of the hospital, allegedly approved fake documents in the case, without proper checks. This is in a case where even blood test reports were not matching between the donor and recipient. The doctor said that he didn’t remember the case.
Dr Shrikant Babhulgaonkar
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Sundar Singh Jadhav (23), the main witness in the case, donated his kidney to recipient Dimple Manak Himmatramka, under the fake documents of Sundarkumar Kunjbihari Roongata. He posed as the brother of the recipient. The authorisation committee of the hospital held a meeting on April 13 to grant approval to conduct the kidney transplant.
The documents available with mid-day show that Sundarkumar claimed to donate his kidney to Dimple ‘out of love and affection towards his sister’. The fake documents submitted by Sundar showed that he was a resident of Thane and his age was given as 30 years.
No match in reports
Before any kidney transplant, Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) test is conducted to check if the donor’s kidney is compatible with the recipient. But in this case, the HLA didn’t match, which should have raised doubts about the relationship between them.
Documents available with mid-day show that Dr Anurag Naik, medical director of the hospital who is also the chairperson of the committee, and Dr Babhulgaonkar, assistant director of health service, approved the kidney transplant of Himmatramka.
“HLA doesn’t match. However, legal documents establish the brother-sister relationship,” is what Dr Naik had written on the approval paper of the authorisation committee. Dr Babhulgaonkar also signed it.
When mid-day spoke to him, Dr Babhulgaonkar said, “I have approved many organ transplantations so can’t remember about the details of the case. I am busy, can’t talk currently.”
Dr HL Trivedi, who is one of the pioneers in kidney transplants in India and has won the Padmashree, said, “If an HLA report doesn’t match between donors and recipients then the hospital should opt for the blood test of the parents to confirm the relationship. And if it is not possible then they should do a DNA test, which is very expensive. This helps in clearing any doubt in the transplant.”
DHS will summon the official for questioning. “As he is a government official, we have to follow proper procedures of interrogation,” said a senior official from DHS.
This will be the second case where a government official has been investigated in the kidney transplant racket. Earlier, another assistant director of DHS, Dr BN Kadam had also been questioned.
HLA test
This (Human Leukocyte Antigen) test is done to match organ and tissue transplant recipients with compatible donors. It identifies the HLA genes a person inherits from his parents and the corresponding antigens (proteins) in his cells.
Dr Tukaram Jamale, Asst Professor, Dept of Nephrology, KEM, said, “If the donor and recipients are siblings then their HLA will match. Rarely, if there is a problem, then it will match at least 25 per cent, though it generally matches to around 50 per cent.”
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