MBA student risks life to expose kidney racket

NEWDELHI: A 24-year-old MBA student risked his safety and played along with illegal kidney donation agents for several weeks to expose a well-organised racket operating in Delhi, top police officials said.

The racket was busted on Thursday when a Delhi Police team conducted multiple raids at the city’s Batra Hospital.

Four alleged middlemen were arrested in raids at other places and sent to six-day police custody.

Praveer Ranjan, joint commissioner of police (crime branch), said the arrests were a result of 40 days of trailing the racketeers.

The youth who helped bust the racket is Jaideep Sharma, an MBA student at Pune’s Symbiosis Institute.

His quest for the racketeers began last September when one of his friends suddenly went missing. Since the friend had spoken about selling his kidney for a handsome price, Jaideep believed that his disappearance had something to do with a racket. He, therefore, made a conscious effort to contact the kidney racketeers and offer himself as a donor. The racketeers fell into the trap and offered him ~4 lakh for donating his kidney.

Sharma, meanwhile, contacted a reporter from News 24 channel. Prepared to conduct a sting operation, the news team informed the crime branch and sought backup. Thereafter, Sharma played along with the racketeers for several weeks, allowing the police to gather evidence. In the meantime, the racketeers made Sharma assume the identity of an Andhra Pradesh man by arranging fake documents and working on his looks.

This was necessary as the law allows only close family members to donate kidneys to the patients. The man who was to receive Sharma’s kidney is a native of Andhra Pradesh.

On Thursday, just an hour before Sharma was to be operated upon, the police swooped down on the hospital and rescued him from the operation theatre.

“We were tipped off by a team of News 24 channel who were conducting a sting on the illegal kidney racketeers. We have a total of 200 hours of video recordings which will help nail the culprits in court,” said Ranjan.