Hyderabad cops flying to Sri Lanka to arrest doctors

Hyderabad: Armed with fresh leads in the kidney racket, the Cyber Crime Police of Hyderabad are gearing up to expose Sri Lankan doctors, who had been clandestinely helping the racket to run successfully. After a year-long investigation, police found that all the accused who were arrested on charges of acting as agents in luring customers were once victims.

Almost all the agents arrested in the kidney racket across the country had sold one of their kidneys for Rs 5 lakh, which was the amount fixed by agents. Taking part in the racket from the preparatory stages, these victims found out ways to gain visa to Sri Lanka, gather information on the doctors to meet in Colombo and get admitted to hospitals where verification of the antecedents of the organ donors and receptors.

They then lured gullible persons in the country by promising handsome amounts. “It has become a vicious circle. Almost all the organ donors who were victims are now illegal agents. It is easy money for them. For each transplant, the package is fixed for Rs 30 lakh.

The receptor has to pay this amount to the agent, who pays about Rs 15 to Rs 18 lakh towards operation fee, Rs 5 lakh to the donor and the remaining is the agent's profit,” said a senior police officer.Business was carried out in an effective way by exploiting internet and social media. Some of the accused maintained blogs and websites to lure the needy.

The officer said the racket had come to light after the death of Dinesh Kumar Maru of Bhadrachalam, who died in Colombo in 2014 when he went to donate his kidney. Dinesh Kumar had posted on Facebook that he wanted to sell his kidney. The agents identified him through internet and he landed in Colombo within a month.

After Dinesh’s death, his elder brother gave leads to police in busting the racket. In 2015, another racket was also busted by the city police, in which a doctor from Shirdi and three others from Old City were arrested on charges of organ trade.

In the recent kidney racket busted by the Nalgonda police, a management student and his four associates, and two others from Gujarat were arrested, those were acting as kingpins. Few days ago, two persons from Delhi were arrested by the Thane police on same charges.

The officer said the management student also donated his kidney for Rs 5 lakh and he became an agent and successfully held 15 such deals at Colombo. The Ahmadabad man, Suresh Prajapathi, who is brought on PT Warrant to Hyderabad, had also revealed shocking facts about the organ trade, he said.

“Prajapathi confessed to have done 55 deals, each for about Rs 5 lakh. He bought a villa for Rs 1.5 crore in Ahmadabad. He leads a luxury life, just with the money earned in organ trade. And it can be noticed that he is also once a donor, a victim of organ trade and now a leading agent,” the officer said.

The officer said the police had sufficient evidences to arrest the doctors in Sri Lanka, who made money in organ trading. “Very soon, our team will be heading to Sri Lanka and expose these doctors with the help of the Lankan police,” the senior police officer said.