Mumbai: To curb organ trafficking, organ panel to have a cop in it

For the first time, a Sub-Inspector from the Azad Maidan Police station will be a part of the city Human Organ Authority Committee to scrutinise or cross-verify the documents and make sure that everything is going according to law. This comes after the committee sought support from the police department in December last year to curb organ trafficking and make the procedures transparent.

Dr Tusar Palve, chairman of the committee, said they had received approval from the police department to be a part of the panel and it is a great move taken by the police to handle organ trafficking. "We were waiting for the green signal from the police department as they are the one who will play a vital role in curbing organ trafficking by verifying or scrutinising each document for a hassle-free process,” he said.

Senior police inspector Bhushan Belnekar, Azad Maidan police station, confirmed that the request had been approved and added that the specifics are being worked out

Taking note of the Pune kidney racket, the Maharashtra Government had formed three regional authority panels to expedite the transplant process between live donors and recipients. For Mumbai city, the Cama and Albless Hospital under the JJ Hospital group was selected for Mumbai city, while KEM was selected for the suburbs, Palghar. The committee included a seven-member group which was headed by Cama Hospital Superintendent Dr Tushar Palve, followed by two members from the IMA, two joint directors from the Directorate of Health Services, Physician, besides members from Pharmacology and Microbiology.

As per the procedure, the donor and recipient have to go through the committee which will scrutinize all the documents and make sure that everything is going according to law and there is no organ trafficking involved. However, it becomes difficult for the doctors to cross-verify the blood relation.

Dr Palve said there have been many instances when it became difficult for doctors to verify and cross-check the relationship between donors and recipients. Adding police officials in the committee will ease the process of verification and people will think twice before submitting fake documents. Moreover, the human organ authorization committee has handled more than 40 cases related to organ donation in seven months, which include 14 liver and 26 kidney donation cases. All the cases are from Mumbai.