An inquiry has been launched against Goa Health Secretary J Ashok Kumar for "unilaterally" allowing a private hospital to conduct organ harvesting procedures, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said.
 

Talking to reporters, Rane said the committee, which has been investigating the illegal harvesting of organs of a brain-dead patient by Manipal Hospital, will also probe the role played by Kumar. The state government has initiated a high-level inquiry after a brain dead man's organs harvested at Manipal Hospital were taken to Mumbai instead of being donated to a patient waiting for transplant at the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Rane said the entire process of organ harvesting at Manipal Hospital was being conducted "illegally". "The health secretary had no power to give unilateral permission to Manipal Hospital to undertake organ transplant. It is absolutely illegal. Even the secretary's note will be investigated by me and the committee," Rane said after inaugurating the burns section at the GMCH. "Bureaucracy ought to understand that they can't cross the rules. They can't go beyond their limits," he said. Rane said the GMCH is the sole organ transplant facility in Goa.

"When harvesting takes place, it has to be done only in a recognised hospital. No officer has the power to give permission for any other hospital to do any kind of organ harvesting when they are not recognised by the government of Goa," he said. "What was done (harvesting at Manipal Hospital) is not as per law. The inquiry into it is going on. Once the report comes to me, I will fix the responsibility and see what is to be done next. As long as I am the health minister, GMCH will be the only hospital for organ transplant," he added. Rane said GMCH dean Dr Pradip Naik has been asked to set up State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) within 30 days, which is mandatory for the organ donation.