Pune Porsche case accused doctor now held in kidney transplant racket

Dr Ajay Taware, former medical superintendent of Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital, was arrested on Thursday in connection with a kidney transplant racket at Ruby Hall Clinic, a private hospital in the city.

Dr Taware is already in Yerwada Central Jail for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of a 17-year-old boy who crashed a Porsche into a motorbike last year, killing two people in Kalyani Nagar.

According to police, the city crime branch has now taken him into custody for his role in the 2022 kidney transplant scam. He was the head of the Regional Authorisation Committee that approved transplants at that time.


Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nikhil Pingale said, “We have taken Dr Ajay Taware into custody in the kidney racket case and he will be produced before the court today.”

In May 2022, Pune police registered a case against 15 people, including Ruby Hall Clinic’s managing trustee and some staff members. The case involved illegal practices during a transplant surgery carried out in March that year.

A woman from Kolhapur had posed as the wife of a man who needed a kidney transplant and donated her kidney to a young woman. In return, the young woman’s mother donated her kidney to the man. The woman from Kolhapur was allegedly promised Rs 15 lakh for the act.

These types of swaps are legal only when the donors are related and the transplant is approved under strict rules, usually in cases where direct donations aren’t possible due to blood group mismatches.

However, on March 29, 2022, just four days after the surgery, the woman revealed her true identity following a disagreement over the promised money.

Inputs from PTI