Kidney racket: Donors were flown to Lanka for surgeries
EXPOSED Police to seek details of cases of organ donation from Colombo hospital, both donors say they needed money, racketeers promised ₹4.5 lakh and ₹3.5 lakh respectively
branch officers probing Delhi’s kidney racket has found that many donors were flown to Sri Lanka by the accused and operated in a Colombo hospital.
Sources said the syndicate had links outside India. During interrogation of four arrested suspects — Jayant Sahoo, Sulekha Panda, Anoj Patra and Birju Paswan — it was found that many donors were especially flown to a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, two years ago for an operation. A few were also taken through the sea route.
“The gang sent the patients to Colombo as they could not arrange a hospital here. This shows that they were operating internationally. The men revealed that they have a strong network across continents and in the past have used several hospitals for the donors,” a police source said.
Police suspect that the syndicate may have got kidney transplants in hospitals in Thailand, Singapore and Dubai as well. “We will now write to the hospital in Sri Lanka to get details of donors and more cases of organ donation at the hospital in the last few years,” an officer said.
Police on Friday had also rescued two men who were going to donate their kidneys. Rajendren from Orissa and Shehzad from Bihar had reached Delhi and were waiting for their operation when they were rescued. While Rajendren was to get ₹4.5 lakh for his kidney, Shehzad was promised ₹3.5 lakh.
Rajendren told police that he had agreed to sell his kidney to arrange money for his sister’s wedding, Shehzad, who is unemployed, had a debt.
Rajendrenclaimedhewasconvinced because the accused men said they themselves had got similar operations done and that they were living a healthy lifestyle.
Shehzad on the other hand told police that he was contacted by a middleman and he agreed as he was in need of money.
Sources said that the two men were ready for the operation and their fake documents had been prepared. “Shehzad was to get operated in Batra hospital while Rajendren was not allotted a hospital yet. Their documents were all ready. They racketeers again had managed to pass off these donors as close relatives of the organ recipients, after making their fake profiles and ID cards,” a senior police officer said.,
The police also found that the gang members used to give advertisements for organ donation in local newspapers and that is how they got in touch with their donors.
Police have seized several documents from Batra hospital premises and have also asked for details of previous organ transplant cases done at the hospital. Police said they would send a notice to Batra hospital to ask doctors and staffers to join the probe. When contacted, Batra Hospital denied any role in the racket.