Pune, May 30 -- More than two years before he allegedly tampered with blood samples to help a Pune teenager escape drunk-driving charges in the infamous Porsche hit-and-run case, Dr Ajay Taware was sanctioning illegal kidney transplants with forged documents in his role as head of the organ authorisation committee. The former Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) medical superintendent, already in judicial custody for his role in the high-profile crash, was arrested by police on Wednesday in connection with a 2022 kidney transplant racket that used fake identities and fraudulent paperwork to circumvent organ donation laws. Dr Taware was produced before a Pune court on Thursday and remanded in police custody till June 2, becoming the 17th person booked and eighth arrested in the kidney racket case. He faces charges of approving illegal transplants while heading the Regional Authorisation Committee for Organ Transplants. "Taware's role has been established in misusing his position while giving approval to alleged kidney transplants in which forged documents were used and dummy donors and recipients were presented," the prosecution told the court while seeking seven days' custody. The case centres on a swap kidney transplant performed at Ruby Hall Clinic on March 24, 2022. The fraud unravelled five days later when a woman admitted as Sujata Amit Salunkhe - supposedly the wife of kidney recipient Amit Salunkhe - created a commotion at the hospital, claiming she was not his wife. The woman later identified herself as Sarika Gangaram Sutar, a 38-year-old widow from Kolhapur, who said she had been promised Rs.15 lakh to pose as Salunkhe's wife and donate her kidney. She never received the money. Under central government regulations, only close relatives such as spouses or blood relatives are eligible to donate organs in live transplants. To circumvent this rule, the couple allegedly enlisted racket masterminds Ravindra Rodge and Abhijit Gatane to forge documents presenting Sutar as the recipient's wife. Taware's role in the blood sample swap was exposed when the minor's sample was swapped at SGH with that of his mother. "Prima facie, investigation has indicated financial deals in kidney transplants," ACP Ganesh Ingale said....