A day after an inter-district kidney sale racket was busted, the Dharmapuri police on Monday arrested two more brokers — N Shajahan (45) of Komarapalayam and P Vadivel (46) of Latheri in Sankagiri taluk. The police team traced their hideout using information provided by main broker N S Ayyavu.
In a related development, another broker — R Srinivasan (35) of Periyamanali in Rasipuram taluk — was arrested in Namakkal district. All the arrested persons, including Ayyavu and donor S Balasubramaniyam, were grilled by SP P Asra Garg on Tuesday.
According to Garg, police teams are hunting for brokers in Dharmapuri, Salem, Namakkal, Erode and Coimbatore districts. The teams are also gathering the list of kidney donors, recipients, clinics where the transplantation procedure was done and the list of doctors who performed the surgeries. As per rules, the donor must be a relative of the recipient.
Garg said that as Ayyavu was involved in the illegal racket for a decade, a special team has been tasked to gather information about his activities and to collect the list of donors and recipients and their current health conditions.
More brokers were also under the police scanner and they may be arrested soon. According to sources, the police were also gathering information on money given as ‘compensation’ to the donors and the list of such incidents in the last decade.
The police are identifying clinics that have recently emerged, especially in rural areas, for further investigation. The Health Department has asked village heath nurses to submit a confidential report on kidney transplantation cases in their regions, the sources said.
Meanwhile, all the five accused persons were produced in the Judicial Magistrate Court, Pappireddipatti. Magistrate
M Shanthi remanded them in judicial custody for 15 days. Later, all the five were lodged in Salem Central Jail, the police said. full coverage: P2