LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday censured the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) investigating officer in an illegal organ transplant case for producing a suspected woman after the court’s time to get her statement recorded under Section 164 of CrPC.

Magistrate Talat Mahmood admonished Investigating Officer Khizar Abbas Hashmi for also not producing the remaining suspects and record of the case before the court.

However, he recorded the statement of the suspect, Safia Bibi, after the officer tendered an unconditional apology and produced record of the case along with other suspects. The magistrate directed the officer to produce the suspects strictly during the court’s time in future.

In her statement, Safia stated that she knew the prime suspect, Dr Fawad Mumtaz, for the last three years.

However, she had no contact with the doctor for a year due to her health issues. She alleged that Dr Mumtaz had carried out kidney transplants on at least 10 patients. She further said that a kidney donor was given Rs250,000 while the doctors would charge an average Rs1.3 million from each recipient.

The FIA had arrested the suspects during a raid in the EME Society, Thokar Niaz Beg where a surgery for illegal organ transplant was under way. The prime suspects included Dr Mumtaz, Dr Altamash Kharal, Umar Draz and Muhammad Shahzad.

Published in Dawn, May 09th, 2017