Kidney theft: Magistrate turns down police request for physical remand

Two owners of hospital, cashier were arrested for their alleged involvement in organ scam

RAWALPINDI: A Rawalpindi court on Saturday turned down a request from the police to remand three suspects into their custody for stealing organs on technical grounds.

Magistrate Ghulam Sarfaraz dropped charges of kidney theft against Dr Colonel (retired) Mukhtar Ahmed, Dr Tousif Ahmed, owners of Kidney Centre located in Morgah. Charges were also dropped against Laiq Ahmed, a cashier at the centre.

Rawalpindi police had on October 19 sealed the Kidney Centre in Morgah after police officials said they suspected owners of the centre and doctors working there of being involved in illegal transplants of kidneys. However, the Centre was later unsealed.

The police had later booked the owners in a case registered on December 4 after receiving a complaint from district health ministering committee.

Ejaz Hussain, the SHO of Morgah police station, said they had arrested two owners of the centre and the cashier on the evening of December 16. On Saturday, he produced them before a judicial magistrate along with an application to secure their 10-days physical remand for further investigations.

However, the defence counsel successfully argued against the remand.

Representing the accused, Advocate Raja Imran Aziz argued before the court that Morgah police registered three FIRs against his clients in span of just 45 minutes.

He added that police had registered the cases under sections 9, 10, and 11 of the Punjab Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2010, after receiving complaints from three people.

The lawyer added that in their statements, which the police had recorded and based their FIRs, the victims said that their kidneys had been removed five to six years ago.

Aziz asked why the victims waited so long to approach the police to register their complaints.

The lawyer further argued that the Rawat police had on October 15 filed a case in which his clients, along with some other people, were booked for allegedly being involved in organ smuggling.

Rawat police had raided the basement of a plaza in the area and rescued 24 prospective kidney ‘donors’, including four women. Police had subsequently arrested four people, including the owner of the plaza and a woman facilitator. Owners of the Kidney Centre and an official there were also booked in the case.

However, Aziz on Saturday said that his clients had already obtained bails in that case.

He further argued that his clients could not booked in subsequent FIRs on similar charges.

The magistrate subsequently turned down the application of the police and discharged the suspects.

When contacted, DSP Civil Lines Farhan Aslam confirmed the courts’ orders. He added that the police would obtain a copy of detailed judgment before deciding to file an appeal against the verdict.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2016.