Social officer arrested for taking bribe to facilitate kidney transplant

A social officer attached to a state-run hospital in Mumbai and a coordinator with a private facility were arrested Monday for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 to facilitate clearance of the file of a patient in need of kidney transplant, the ACB said Tuesday. 

The accused duo had demanded Rs 1.50 lakh from the family members of the patient, but had settled for Rs 80,000, an Anti-Corruption Bureau (AVB) official said. 

They are identified as Tushar Savarkar (34), a social service branch office of JJ Hospital, and Sachin Salve (32), a co-coordinator with a private hospital located in suburban Mahim. 

The duo was arrested while accepting the amount from a family member of the patient who is currently undergoing treatment for renal failure in the private hospital, an ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) official said. "The patient is on dialysis and wanted to undergo a renal transplant surgery," he said. 

The patient had found a donor in his brother-in-law but needed an approval of JJ hospital for the surgery as per law. In order to get the necessary approval, Salve sent the file to Savarkar for processing, the ACB said. Savarkar asked the family members of the patient to pay Rs 1.50 lakh for clearance of file. 

The amount was later brought down to Rs 80,000 after negotiations, the official said. The family members approached the ACB officials who arrested the duo at the office of Savarkar, he added. They were booked under various charges.

(With inputs from agencies.)