Nephrologist Dr Suresh Trivedi of Bombay Hospital, arrested on the charge of acting as middleman in the kidney transplant racket case, was on Thursday released on a bail of Rs 50,000 by a local court.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A N Choure granted bail to Trivedi in the sum of Rs 50,000 and asked him not to leave the country without the permission of the court.

The magistrate also asked him to deposit his passport with the court within two days. Dr Trivedi, suspected to be a facilitator between the recipient and the transplant gang, was under surveillance since June 2002.

The police claimed to have recorded Trivedi's mobile phone conversations, which indicated that he had negotiated kidney transplant deals.

The court accepted the argument of defence lawyer I P Bagadia that police had no powers to investigate this case under Human Organ Transplantation Act 1994. It was only a magistrate who could take action on a private complaint filed under the provisions of this special act, he argued.

The prosecution, however, opposed Trivedi's bail saying investigations were at a crucial stage and his release at this juncture would hamper the probe.