Month after kidney racket busted, Mohali hospital director booked

Police say teams have been despatched to arrest Dr SS Bedi and Punjab Medical Council has been informed about the action

Over a month after a kidney transplant racket was busted at a private hospital in Dera Bassi town of Punjab’s Mohali district, police have booked its director, Dr SS Bedi, and are carrying out raids to arrest him.

Police at the house of Indus International Hospital director Dr SS Bedi in Mohali on Tuesday. The director has been booked a month after a kidney transplant racket was unearthed at his hospital. (HT Photo)

Dera Bassi assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Darpan Ahluwalia on Tuesday said, “We have named hospital director Dr SS Bedi in the case. Teams have been despatched to arrest him. The Punjab Medical Council (PMC) has been informed about the action.”

During the course of investigation, Ahluwalia said, the police found evidence that indicated his direct involvement and anomalies in nearly a dozen transplant operations carried out at Indus International Hospital.

Police sources said the prime accused and the hospital’s transplant coordinator, Abhishek Kumar, who was arrested in March, shared inputs that substantiated Dr Bedi’s role. A police team raided Dr Bedi’s house in Phase in 3B2 in Mohali, but he managed to escape.

30 kidney transplants in two years

More than 30 kidney transplant surgeries were conducted at the hospital in two years till March 7, 2023. All surgeries were coordinated and facilitated by transplant coordinator Abhishek.

The role of the director came under the scanner after commercial dealings were reported in six transplant surgeries recently. The recipients were from Jalandhar, Kurukshetra, Ludhiana, Banur, Meerut and Bareilly.

These cases are apart from the complaint in which a middle-aged donor, rescued by the police, and the case of Kapil Kumar, who sold his kidney to a recipient from Sonepat, Satish Tayal, 53, for ₹4.5 lakh were reported.

ASP Darpan Ahluwalia, who is a part of the three-member special investigation team (SIT) probing the scam, said, “Disparities in documents have been found. The matter is under investigation.”

Despite repeated attempts, Dr Bedi, could not be contacted.

Earlier, Dr Bedi had said that the hospital authorities were also victims as they had been duped by the donor and the recipient. He blamed transplant coordinator Abhishek for the racket.

Three conspirators still evading arrest

Three key conspirators of the racket, Hassan, Anmol and Himanshu, are still eluding arrest.

“We are hoping that their arrest will provide further leads to the police in understanding the network of the racket and other states in which it is being operated,” said Mohali SSP Dr Sandeep Garg.

The accused used social media and targeted donors and recipients for kidney transplant in lieu of money.

Donor Kapil Kumar of Sirsa, who blown the lid off the racket, said he had got in touch with Himanshu after reading a Facebook post in which incentives were offered in exchange for O positive blood group.

Himanshu introduced him to Hassan and the duo persuaded him to donate his kidney and introduced him to Abhishek. Anmol, who is based in Delhi, forged the test reports, Aadhar card, voter card and other details.

Collected data of patients from clinics

The gang collected data of patients from clinics of nephrologists to target them. While most of the kidney recipients were from the tricity of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali besides other parts of Haryana and Punjab, the donors were from Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, a police official privy to the investigation said.

The accused maintained a pool of donors and once a matching recipient was found, the accused, including Abhishek, would forge documents to present the donor as a blood relative.

The scam came to light after donor Kapil accused Abhishek of not paying him the promised ₹10 lakh in lieu of his kidney. He had posed as the son of the kidney recipient, Satish Tayal, 53, of Sonepat.

A case was registered under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 465 (forgery), 467(forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record]) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 19 and 20 of the Transplantation of Human Organ Act (THOA) on March 18. The accused were arrested on March 19 and sent to judicial custody. Abhishek and his aide Raj Narayan have been arrested in the case.