Acquittal of doctors in kidney scam upheld

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s acquittal order of 2005 discharging five doctors allegedly involved in a kidney racket.Hearing an appeal filed by the State government to set aside the October 19, 2005 orders passed by the IV Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, acquitting doctors Adil and Syed Adil Ahmed, K S Siddaraju, Dilip Patil, Dilip C Dhanpal from the offence of committing kidney thefts, Justice V Jagannathan upheld the lower court order and quashed the chargesheet. The government had contended that police had filed a chargesheet against the doctors for offences punishable under various sections of the IPC for illegally transplanting kidneys of victims by theft to other patients.The doctors subsequently filed applications for discharge under Section 227 of the CrPc and the lower court acquitted them. Later, the State government had filed an appeal to set aside the      order.The court upheld the doctors’ contention that the donors were aware of kidney transplantation as also the consent form executed by the donor.  Reinvestigation of Murder Case Stayed The High Court on Tuesday stayed the reinvestigation of realtor-cum-film producer Govardhan Murthy who is facing charges of murdering his friend and actor Vinod Kumar. The present DGP Shankar Bidari had ordered reinvestigation of the case when he was the chief of Criminal Investigation Department. Kiran Kumar, brother of the victim Vinod Kumar, had  filed a petition  in the High Court stating that reinvestigation is not required as the case is being already investigated and the witness have been examined.  Hearing the petition, Justice N Anand allowed the interim prayer and stayed the reinvestigation till January 24 and adjourned the case for further hearing.Govardhan Murthy was booked for allegedly murdering his friend Vinod Kumar in an inebriated state. Murthy, who had produced two films had invited Vinod to a party at his farm house on October 7, 2008 and shot him after a heated argument. Vinod Kumar, before his death, had stated that Murthy had shot him.