Kidney racket that lured donors, recipients via FB busted: Police

A FACEBOOK post promising opportunity to earn money by selling kidney; donors and recipients both from Bangladesh; and fake passports, as claimed by a donor, to facilitate travel to India for the procedure performed at a prestigious hospital in Jaipur: Gurgaon Police claimed that a transplant racket has been busted by a team from the Chief Minister's Flying Squad along with the health department following a raid at a hotel in Sector-39 on Thursday.

The joint team found both donors and recipients — one of eachonwhomtheprocedurewas carriedoutandtwowhowereyet togettheproceduredone—without the requisite certificate documents issued by authorities.

Duringinterrogation,itwasrevealed that the racket was run by Murtaza Ansari from Ranchi, Jharkhand, and he facilitated kidney transplants at Fortis Hospital injaipur,saidasitarunkumar,the investigating officer in the case.

“A donor we found at the hotel contacted Ansari through a Facebook post...the deal was finalised at Rs 2 lakh for the kidney donor, while Rs 10 lakh was charged from the recipient. We arecheckingifthepassportswere original.sofar,wehavefoundthat

two operations took place, the recipient of one was at the hotel while the donor had gone back to Bangladesh. In the second case, thedonorwasatthehotelandthe recipient was still at the hospital,” Kumar added.

Police said the surgeries were conducted at the Jaipur hospital after which they were brought to Gurgaon and made to stay at the hotel for 10-12 days before being sent back. “The accused was not atthehotelatthetimeoftheraid,” said Kumar.

Anfirhasbeenregisteredunderthetransplantationofhuman Organs and Tissues Act and sections420,120bipcatthegurgaon Sadarpolicestationagainstansari and police are looking for him.

Acp(sadar)kapilahlawatsaid that they are checking for details

ofansariandhowthebangladesh nationals came to India.

Dr Pawan Chaudhary, Deputy Civil Surgeon, Gurgaon, said, “During the raid, we found that twopeoplewereyettogetthesurgery done as they were found unfit for it. Earlier, a raid took place in Jaipurafterwhichgurgaonpolice were informed of the incident.”

According to the FIR, “...the guestsweredonorsandrecipients of kidneys and were treated at Fortis Hospital Jaipur...it was surprising to note that the donor and the recipient were not related to each other. When they were enquiredaboutno-objectioncertificate or any permission from the authorityasauthorisedunderlaw, neither could produce any such document,” said the FIR.

The FIR stated that one of the donors said that he contacted Ansariafterspottinganadvertisement on Facebook. Police said a kidney from Shamim Mehndi Hasan, 24, was given to a 66-yearold man from whom Ansari took Rs 10 lakh. In the second case, a 30-year-old donated his kidney for Rs 2 lakh to a 25-year-old.

Speaking to the media at the hotel, Shamim said, “They arranged all the documents, including the passport. They broughtmeheretwomonthsago. The passport was forged but I don’t know the details.”

Fortis Healthcare, in a statement,saiditwouldfullycooperate with any ongoing investigation.

“Fortis Healthcare is committed to the highest ethical standards in healthcare, strictly following the SOTTO (State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation) protocols for organ transplants...each case is thoroughly evaluated...by the State Authorizationcommitteeandobtains necessary government approvals...wehaveazero-tolerance policy towards procedural deviationsandwearecommittedtopatientsafety,careandtransparency and ethical practices,” the statementadded. Aspokespersonsaid that a transplant coordinator at the hospital was found to have beeninvolvedwiththeracket,and action was taken against him by authorities last week.