Court rejects plea to extend Taware's police custody in kidney transplant case
Pune: A court on Wednesday rejected the prosecution's plea to extend by seven days the police remand of Dr Ajay Taware, suspended head of Sassoon General Hospital's forensic science department, in connection with the kidney transplant case.
He was arrested in relation to the 10 kidney swap transplants that were cleared by the regional authorisation committee for organ transplant, which he headed in 2022.
Assistant public prosecutor Nitin Adagale told the court that the investigating officer, ACP (crime) Ganesh Ingale, in the remand report cited several reasons for Taware's questioning as the investigations had made sufficient progress. Probe found discrepancies in the information provided by the donors and recipients as well as in the video recordings of their interviews conducted before the authorisation committee, Adagale said.
Police aimed to determine if Taware received any pecuniary benefits from the crime, he said.
Judicial magistrate first class S R Badve, in his order, said, "The grounds mentioned in the remand report are not well-founded and justified with respect to the accused. Custodial interrogation of the accused is not necessary."
The court remanded Taware in magisterial custody till June 17. He was later sent to Yerawada Central Jail.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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When asked if the prosecution would file a criminal revision petition in the sessions court challenging the magistrate court's order to seek police custody, Adagale told TOI after the court proceedings that he had not received instructions from the investigating officer in this regard.
ACP Ingale said, "Even though the court has ordered magisterial custody of Taware and sent him to jail, police, as per new provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, reserve the right to seek his police remand whenever required for the purpose of investigations in the future."
Taware's lawyers, Sudhir Shah and Abhishek Bade, said they will decide whether to file a bail application after consulting their client.
On May 28, police secured Taware's custody from Yerawada jail, where he had been lodged since his arrest on May 27, 2024, in the blood sample swap case linked to the Porsche Taycan car crash on May 19 last year.
Police formally arrested him in the 2022 kidney swap transplant case based on a state health department inquiry panel's report that year, which indicted him of misusing his official position to clear the transplant proposal based on bogus persons and forged documents. Taware headed the regional authorisation committee as well as Sassoon authority committee and was medical superintendent of the hospital at the time when the transplant process took place and was completed at Ruby Hall Clinic.
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