Chapter10
Shigura surgical accessories co ltd, is a Osaka based Japanese company manufacturing Cryogenic containers under license from an American Company. Being a high value item used to carry items of strategic importance, the design of the container included an embedded chip to track the movement of the container from one place to other. There was a dedicated computer system located some where in Tokyo to keep tags on maps of such movement for a period of three months any time. This type of mapping helped the company to render required after sale service to the container at any location in the planet. So they were not at all surprised when a query was received from AP POLICE, Hyderabad,India, over email. They responded promptly to confirm that the list of twenty serial numbers of cryogenic flasks were part of consignment sold to Little Flower Hospital , Singapore. They sent copy of original invoice of sale. They also sent a copy of the information to the concerned hospital, so that their valued customer knew the police in India was taking interest in movement of their containers. This email got buried under hundred other mails that Dr chen missed to read.
Mouli was reading the news item in the business section of the day’s newspaper. It mentioned that Apollo hospital had concluded the deal to acquire the Singapore labs specialising in tissue and cellular research. The fact that the deal included a ten acre property in a prime location, added to the sensation. The chairman of Apollo hospital Dr Sashank rao said in his conference that Singapore Lab had already been doing pre surgery investigation of tissues for his hospital. So with this acquisition, such facility would be available in house cutting time frames short.
Mouli saw this development as a move by the powerful medical profession to stymy the investigation into the activities of Singapore labs by the police of AP.
Mouli organised all the information in his possession and decided to confront Dr Praful Reddy. He hoped to crack the good doctor wide open to face serious charges of trafficking in human organs .So far he had nothing to prove but he was preparing to stake all his reputation by taking on the Doctor.The doctor confirmed that it was convenient for him to talk to the police commissioner at the hospital. The interrogation went as follows. The doctor handled all questions with aplomb. He kept a plastic smile in place to unnerve the policeman. Dickey had suggested rough approach but Mouli was aware of political pressure that police have to live upto, so decided on formal interrogation. He kept his secret recording device properly powered and connected over wireless system. The idea was if Mouli failed to establish participation in criminal activity, Dickey will take over and pin the doctor down in his own style.The interrogation went some thing like this.
Pol; I am showing a photograph of a woman you know. Can you please identify her please.
Dr.Yes I know her .she is shanta wife of one of our officials. .
Mouli showed another photo. In this photo shanta was in a frightened condition crying and her face all swollen .This woman has complained that she was beaten up by your security staff and the staff are presently in police custody. They have given a written confession stating that they were instructed by you to beat this woman. We are planning to arrest you in this matter after checking a few facts. You have any thing to say in this regard?
The incident happened outside my hospital and I did not have any thing to do with it. Shanta had come to the hospital to collect some money due to her husband. She possibly showed this amount as she passed by the security and they possibly thought it was easy to take the money from her. They were thieves and I am glad that police acted smartly and arrested the criminals. If the security staff stated that I instructed them to do so, they are simply lying. In my position we make payments to so many people for goods and services. We don’t recover those payments by engaging criminals to steal. we are running a hospital and not a criminal operation.
Mouli put a cross mark against his check list.
There is a message from a hospital in Singapore that the cryogenic flasks from their hospital was found in your hospital. can you please explain how this flask reached your hospital.
Mr Mouli, you know I am a very busy Doctor and a surgeon. You really can not expect me to answer how certain things reached our hospital. There is a big establishment to look after procurement and movements of goods and equipment. Still it is difficult for any one to tell how something is found in our hospital.
Pol; We have reason to believe that you are exchanging these containers with hospitals in Singapore. we have documentary evidence of such movement. Now I am asking you if you have any working relationship with any Singapore based hospitals .
Dr; No I do not have any working relationship with any Singapore hospitals.
Pol; Have you met Dr chen li or Dr Michael Tong
Praful Reddy thought for a minute and decided to carry on with his bluff.
Pol; Doctor, I am waiting for an answer
DR’; Look. As a prominent surgeon I attend many seminars and international conferences .It is possible that I have met these doctors. You may even have photos showing me with them. But that does not establish friendship or working relationship.
Pol; Do you visit Singapore frequently?
Dr. Yes, I have interests in Singapore, so I do visit that place.
Pol; What is your interest in Singapore?
Dr. I do not wish to talk about it here for strategic reasons. Revealing that to you would mean leaking out our corporate plans. So I won’t answer that question.
Pol;Do you perform any surgeries in Singapore?.
Dr;No. Singapore laws allow only accredited Doctors to perform surgeries there. I have no such accredition.
Pol; I am showing you another photo now. This person is in police custody. Do you know this person
The doctor saw the photograph of Dr.Reddy. He prepared himself to face more barrage of questions.
Dr. Yes I know this person. He used to work for the appolo hospital as aclinical psychologists. We have engaged his services now and then
Pol; what sort of services?
Dr. To advice our patients on pre surgery and post surgical mind conditioning required in many cases. It is an important part of any surgery. He is an expert. We have engaged him and paid suitable compensation also.
Pol; ’Has he done any other work for you?
Dr .No.
Pol; In his confession statement Dr .Reddy has stated that he is a director in your company and his job includes acquiring new facilities.
Dr; No that is not true
Pol; Are you familiar with a pathological centre called Singapore labs in Hyderabad.
Dr. There are many pathological labs in Hyderabad doing testing work for us.That part is handled by a separate department in our hospital.
Singapore labs have done some work for our hospital like that
Pol; You don’t have any special interest in that.
Dr; No, Nothing special.
Pol; Does Singapore labs belong to you.
Dr. No.
Pol; The department of company affairs have given me a document that states that Singapore labs is registered as company fully owned by your hospital. Are you aware of this
Dr; No
Pol; The application for licence to run pathological tests in their labs was signed personally by you. Are you aware of it?
Dr. No
Pol; Be very careful about answering that question. Whether you know it or not,You are the owner of that establishment and responsible for their action
Dr. No, It is an independent establishment. As you are aware , it has been acquired by Apollo Hospitals
Pol. I am aware that some very powerful forces are at work to protect you.That acquisition was done to protect you.
Doctor did not react to that comment.
Pol. We have in our custody several cryogenic containers, taken from Singapore labs. The movement register maintained by them shows all these being frequently moving between your hospital and their labs. So you can not say you are not aware of these. Also strangely all the movement papers are signed by you personally. You are a busy person like you said before .Then why are these papers signed by you.
Dr ;In certain emergencies we do not mind doing some paper work
Pol; We have record to show that these containers have gone from your hospital to Singapore.Can you explain that
Dr. I see no reason to explain that.
Pol. what do you mean by that.
Okay , can you tell me what you are transferring in these containers.
Dr. sample tissues from patients undergoing surgery
Pol; What sort of surgeries?
Dr; All sorts of surgeries undertaken at our labs;
Pol; Organ transplants ?
Dr. Yes
Pol. Let me put it this way doctor.at the end you say yes or no. As I understand it, you undertake organ transplant operations, you send tissues to Singapore labs for testing. These containers are used to transport samples. And there are records to show that same containers also go to Singapore. So it can be inferred that these samples also go to Singapore hospitals. Now question is do you deny sending these samples to Singapore?
Dr. I can only say that your questions are based on your own surmises and conclusions.
Pol; let it be so. Doctor, do you extract organs?
Dr. yes, there are donors from whom we do extract organs.
POL;do these organs get sent to singpore ?.
Dr; no, these organs are meant for local patients.
pol; There is a human rights lawyer , who is moving matter to the court accusing you of extracting organs from innocent patients with out their knowledge and with out any compensation. She has given a petition to police department requesting the police to investigate your activity. We have also received a request from government of Singapore seeking permission to investigate your activity. So please understand there is lot of pressure mounting against you
Dr. Complaint by human rights activists is a different matter. Those people have no work to do .So they want to attract public attention by sensationalism. I can handle those issues when they come up. presently I am patiently responding to your questions.
Pol. You have said that organs do not get transported to Singapore from your hospital. We have statement from two Singapore citizens who had carried samples of liver extraction from your hospital. They have test reports signed by you and the chief of Singapore labs Dr Damodharan. Their statement made in malay language with translation by a language expert and attested by another Malaysian expert available with us. That statement clearly establishes the fact that you have been lying .We have video and audio records of your conversation with Shanta reddy and stack of currency notes received by her .We have complete files of all test reports on every sample sent by you to Singapore. we have computer generated movement maps of the cryogenic containers that clearly establishes that you have transported organs extracted from Indian patients for transplantation to singapore based clients. we have video recording of surgery performed by you in Singapore. So your statement that you have not performed any surgeries in Singapore is not true. You have violated the laws of that country by performing an un authorised surgery . It is my duty to warn you that apart from facing immediate arrest , there is every possibility of Government of Singapore initiating extradition procedures against you for facing trials at Singapore.
Mouli stood up and opened the door . Kamath was standing with a handcuff in his hand. Doctor stood up. Mouli said softly, “we now request you to walk out with us and get into the police car. If you protest in any way , we will have to put handcuffs on you and take you by force.”