NHRC asks Odisha to cancel or suspend Apollo Hospital’s license over organ donation fraud.

Source – hindustantimes.com

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Odisha government for an action taken report (ATR) on its three-months-old recommendation to suspend or cancel the registration of Bhubaneswar’s Apollo Hospital for violating the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act. The commission has also asked the government to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the victim whose kidney was allegedly removed fraudulently at the hospital in 2013.

The NHRC has asked the government to respond within 6 weeks, failing which, it would start a coercive process under section 13 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Odisha-based human rights activist Akhand had filed a complaint in 2016 alleging Apollo Hospital in Bhubaneswar had taken out the kidney of one Anil Kumar Swamy through deception in 2013 and transplanted it in a patient named Raghabram Dora.

Raghabram’s two brothers are accused of conspiring to rob Swamy of his kidney by presenting him as Raghabram’s brother and forging documents to mask his identity since Kidneys can be donated legally only by family members. Swamy was being treated for stomach ailments at Apollo but ended up losing his kidney.

In its earlier order in the matter, the NHRC had faulted the authorization committee of the Odisha government for granting a no-objection certificate for the transplant without proper verification. The human rights panel also pointed to Apollo Hospital’s connivance in obtaining the NOC.

Odisha chief secretary Asit Tripathi did not comment on the NHRC order.

Apollo Hospitals, in an official statement, said that the order “ignored the stay and directions issued by the Orissa High Court, and we will approach the higher courts for relief.”

“We have followed the due process of rule and law. We are confident of presenting the real facts related to the case during our appeal seeking quashing of the order. Our arguments have not been presented. We have not been given any chance for oral hearing. We will challenge this order at Orissa High Court,” the statement added.