Delhi Police write to 3 pvt hospitals after arrest in kidney racket case

Police said the accused facilitated multiple illegal transplant surgeries during their tenures at the hospitals

The Delhi Police on Friday said it wrote to three private hospitals in Delhi and Indore after their transplant coordinators were arrested in a kidney racket case by the crime branch last week.

Police arrested 15 people in a crackdown across 11 private hospitals in five states. (Representational image)

Police officers on Friday said the accused facilitated multiple illegal transplant surgeries during their tenures at the hospitals, adding that the hospitals have responded to the investigators.

On July 19, DCP (crime) Amit Goel said his team arrested 15 people in a crackdown across 11 private hospitals in five states. The gang carried out at least 34 illegal kidney transplants. The matter came to light in June after one of the patients, a resident of Delhi, died before the transplant and his wife blamed the accused for not returning ₹35 lakh she paid them.

An investigator on Friday said the three hospitals police contacted were Primus Hospital in Chanakyapuri, Fortis Hospital Delhi, and Jupiter Super Speciality Hospital, Indore. Police said they asked the doctors about the recruitment procedure and the kidney transplant cases.

“Our probe revealed that the gang leader, Sandeep Arya, worked as a transplant coordinator at Jupiter Hospital in Indore. He has an MBA in public health and has also worked in reputed hospitals in Delhi-NCR and Vadodara. He used to take about ₹ 35-40 lakh for each transplant,” said Goel. Another accused, Cheeka Prashanth, worked as a transplant coordinator at Primus Hospital and procured the job with fake documents.

The investigator said Prashanth’s name was displayed on the Primus Hospital website too, which has been removed. “We have sent a letter to Primus Hospital about his employment and the cases he handled. They have written to us and will coordinate,” said a senior officer.

Spokespersons from Primus Hospital and Jupiter Hospital said they were fully cooperating with the investigating agency. “Arya worked with us but that was a year ago. We did not know he was involved in the racket,” said the spokesperson from Jupiter Hospital. A spokesperson from Fortis Hospital they were not part of the case. “We been fully cooperating with the investigating authorities and provided all information.. We did not know he was involved in the racket. We are cooperating with the police in their probe and have written to them.”

The eight other hospitals whose names have cropped up in the investigation are in Faridabad, Mohali, Panchkula, Agra, Indore and Gujarat. Another investigator said two of these nine hospitals are part of a large hospital chain in Delhi-NCR and Agra.