Delhi police bust kidney racket, 8 including kingpin arrested; gang collected Rs 35 lakh per recipient

New Delhi: An inter-state kidney transplant racket has been busted with the arrest of eight people, including its kingpin, following a week-long operation to crackdown on their activities in several places, including in Delhi-NCR, police said on Friday. Besides them, seven others, including donors and recipients, have been "bound down" -- a legal process in which a person is required to appear at a certain date before authorities like a case's investigating officer or a court.

Those arrested were part of a gang that used to get transplants done based on forged documents in multiple hospitals in Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, police said.

The kidney donors were people from lower-income groups and they made the donation in lieu of money, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Amit Goel said. He added that the accused forged documents to show the donors as a close relative of the recipient, one of the mandatory provisions for organ donation and transplant. Goel said while the donors were promised to be paid anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh, members of the gang charged the receiver between Rs 35 lakh and 40 lakh.

"In an organised manner, the accused first took up jobs at reputed hospitals as transplant coordinators. Then, they either got trained or learned the process adopted by the hospital for kidney transplant," Goel said.

"They used to identify patients suffering from a kidney disease and taking treatment from different hospitals in Delhi, Faridabad, Mohali, Panchkula, Agra, Indore and Gujarat," the DCP said.

Kidney transplants in 11 hospitals
In its probe and during the week-long operation, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch found that the gang had succeeded in getting kidney transplants done in 11 hospitals in different states.

"We have arrested eight people and bound-down seven others of the well-organised racket which was involved in illegal kidney transplants of Indian citizens," Goel said, adding that with their arrest, 34 cases of illegal kidney transplant have been identified.

The DCP said the Crime Branch initiated the probe and conducted raids after it found that a woman paid Rs 35 lakh to two people, identified as Sandeep Arya and Vijay Kashyap alias Sumit, to find a donor for her husband.

"On June 26, one of them was identified and teams conducted multiple raids, and arrested Sumit from Noida. Fabricated papers, stamp seals and patient and donor files were recovered from his possession. On June 28, Arya, the kingpin, and Devender Jha, residents of Uttarakhand, were arrested from a five-star hotel in Goa," he said.

They revealed the modus operandi of the gang, police said.

Donors were cheated
After identifying a potential donor, the accused used to contact them on social media and taking advantage of their financial situation, "exploited" them by promising to pay them Rs 5 lakh to 6 lakh, according to investigators.

"They forged documents of patients/donors to show them as close relative, as this is one of the mandatory provisions. In some cases, they fabricated documents and showed the donor and patient as residents of other states to get transplantation done in different hospitals to avoid any suspicion," the DCP said.

Based on the forged documents, the accused got preliminary medical examinations done and completed the process of transplant authorisation committees in different hospitals, he said.

In the course of the investigation, Punit Kumar, Hanif Shaikh, Cheeka Prashanth, Tej Prakash and Rohit Khanna were arrested from different places.

"Five patients, who got their kidney transplant done, and two donors were also identified. Legal action has been initiated against them. So far, 34 cases of illegal kidney transplants have been identified and further investigation is underway," Goel said.

MBA holder's organ trade
Giving a brief profile of the accused, police said Arya is an MBA in public health and had worked as a transplant coordinator in various hospitals in Faridabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Indore and Vadodara. He used to contact patients and arrange kidney transplant surgeries in hospitals where he had worked, they said and added that he used to take about Rs 35 lakh to 40 lakh for each kidney transplant case. The amount included the hospital expenses of a patient, arrangement of donor, accommodation and documentation required for surgery. He used to save Rs 7 lakh to 8 lakh from each case, police said. He was previously involved in a credit card cheating case registered by the Shalimar Bagh police station in Delhi.

Jha, who studied till Class 10, is Arya's brother-in-law and he assisted him in receiving payments. He used to take Rs 50,000 for each case, they said.

Sumit, a graduate, Shaikh, a tailor, and Prashanth came in contact with Arya to donate their kidneys to earn some money, and later, became members of the gang, police said. Kumar, who has worked in seven reputed hospitals in different states, used to forge documents.

Prakash, who got a kidney transplant done for his wife from a hospital in Mohali through Arya, also became a part of the gang by providing him a patient. Khanna used to arrange contact numbers of kidney donors through social media platforms and groups.

DCP Goel said police have recovered 34 fake stamps, 17 mobile phones, two laptops, nine SIMs, one luxury car, Rs 1.50 lakh, forged documents and files of patients/recipients and donors.