LUCKNOW: In a major crackdown, the Kanpur police have busted an illegal kidney transplant racket spread across multiple cities, including Nepal, and arrested six persons, including a doctor couple, their three doctor partners and an ambulance operator, late on Monday night.
As per police sources, the arrests were made following a complaint by an MBA student, who alleged that one of his kidneys was purchased for Rs 10 lakh and sold to a patient for Rs 60 lakh, but he was paid Rs 50,000 less than the assured amount. All the arrested accused were sent to jail on Tuesday.
Police said the hospital where the donor and the recipient were undergoing treatment had no documentation related to the procedure, following which the arrests were made.
Commissioner of Kanpur Police, Raghubir Lal, said preliminary investigation showed the racket’s network extended to cities including Lucknow, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Nepal.
He said approximately 40 to 50 kidney transplants were suspected to have been carried out so far across various private hospitals in Kanpur city, and the police were conducting an intensive investigation to identify other individuals and institutions involved in the racket.
Police sources claimed that the traffickers used encrypted messaging apps like Telegram to lure donors and coordinate the operations.
The Kanpur Police Commissioner added that, on the basis of a complaint followed by specific intelligence inputs, it came to the fore that in some hospitals, kidneys of poor individuals were being extracted by promising them handsome amounts but paying them less than agreed and selling the organs for lakhs.
“Acting on this information, a joint team comprising Chief Medical Officer team, the Surveillance/Crime team of DCP West, police station Kalyanpur, and police station Rawatpur, conducted raids on three hospitals: Ahuja Hospital, Priya Hospital, and Med Life Hospital of Kanpur,” said the police commissioner.
Consequently, Dr Surjit Singh Ahuja (54), son of Sardar Ajit Singh; his wife Dr Preeti Ahuja (50); Dr Rajesh Kumar (44), son of late Bhagwati Deen; Dr Ram Prakash (40), son of late Vijay Bahadur; Dr Narendra Singh (35), of Kanpur Dehat; and ambulance operator Shivam Agrawal (32), son of late Krishna Kumar, were taken into custody from the hospitals late on Monday night.
The Police Commissioner said that, while making the arrests, a massive quantity of medicines and around Rs 1,75,000 in cash were recovered from the possession of the accused doctors.
Subsequently, on the basis of the recovery and arrest, an FIR was registered under Sections 18/19/20 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, and Section 143/3(5) of BNS at Thana Rawatpur, Kanpur Nagar, said the CP.
Acting on this tip-off, police conducted simultaneous raids at Med Life Hospital, Ahuja Hospital, and Priya Hospital in Kalyanpur.
During the operation, both the kidney donor and recipient were found admitted at Med Life Hospital. When officials demanded documentation for the transplant, hospital authorities reportedly failed to provide any valid legal approvals.
As per a police source, the accused used Telegram to remain anonymous and coordinate illegal transplants across cities.
Sources said that Ayush, the donor on whose complaint the racket was exposed, originally hailed from Samastipur in Bihar and was currently residing in Meerut.
He told police that he was contacted via Telegram by Shivam Agrawal and was persuaded to come to Kanpur and finalise the kidney sale at an apartment in Awas Vikas-3, Kalyanpur.
Ayush reportedly told police that he was promised Rs 10 lakh for his kidney, but was paid only Rs 9.5 lakh. When he raised the issue, they refused to give him the remaining amount. That was when he contacted the police and the racket was busted.
The transplant of the kidney extracted from Ayush reportedly took place on Sunday at Ahuja Hospital, where it was transplanted into Parul Tomar, a patient from Muzaffarnagar.
Officials noted that the patient’s family paid Rs 60 lakh for the procedure, highlighting the massive profit margins in the racket.
Authorities alleged that after the donor contacted the police, Ayush was shifted to Med Life Hospital and Parul to Priya Hospital to avoid detection.
However, police tracked both and confirmed their locations during the raids. Ayush’s health reportedly deteriorated after the procedure, and he was admitted to the government-run Halet Hospital.
Police sources said that the accused initially tried to mislead investigators by moving the donor and recipient to different hospitals.
Following the police action, the district health authorities also intervened. Additional Chief Medical Officer (ACMO) Dr Ramit Rastogi said that the district health department had issued notices to Med Life, Ahuja, and Priya Hospitals, asking them to provide all relevant documents regarding the transplants.
“If their responses are unsatisfactory, strict action, including licence cancellation, will follow,” added Dr Ramit Rastogi.
A senior police official added that the use of Telegram and other encrypted apps to convince potential donors showed a high level of planning.