Kidney racket: At least four Delhi docs on police radar, search on for victims

Investigators said the doctors may be arrested after they gather evidence against them.

The Delhi Police on Thursday said they have identified at least four surgeons, a couple of them working with reputed hospitals in Delhi, who are allegedly involved in the illegal kidney transplants racket that was busted on Wednesday with the arrest of 10 people including a doctor and operation theatre technicians.

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Investigators said the doctors may be arrested after they gather evidence against them. They said names of more doctors and members of the racket may emerge as the interrogation of the 10 accused continued. They said they were also looking for more people who were lured by the racket members to sell their kidney as well as the recipients who bought the organ.

“The role of three-four surgeons in the illegal kidney transplant has emerged during the interrogation of the arrested accused. The arrested persons told us that 14-15 people, including those conducted the surgery, remained at the Gohana hospital during each transplant. Each doctor was paid ₹2 lakh- ₹3 lakh for each successful transplant. Every recipient paid up to ₹40 lakh,” an officer associated with the investigation said, requesting anonymity.

Kidney racket.

On Wednesday, deputy commissioner of police (south) Benita Mary Jaiker said that Kuldeep Ray Vishvakarama alias KD, an operation theatre (OT) technician at a reputed Delhi hospital, was the kingpin of the racket.

The officer said Vishvakarama had been working in various hospitals for the past 20 years, and performed kidney transplant operations with the help of others

“Vishvakarama told the police that he was earning ₹70,000 per month at the hospital where he worked. But he was not satisfied. Around two years ago, Vishvakarama came in contact with a person who was involved in the illegal kidney transplant racket. Vishvakarma worked with him for nearly a year and learnt how the entire network moved. Nearly eight months ago, Vishvakarama formed his own gang and started conducting illegal transplants,” said a second investigator who also asked not to be named.

Vishvakarma has also told the police that he expanded his network by visiting gurdwaras, shelter homes, hospitals and other public places to find economically weaker people so that he could take advantage of their financial distress. “He used to lure them and offer them ₹50,000 to get him persons who would be willing to sell their kidneys. He also hired agents who would scout for such people, and his network grew over the years,” the second investigator said.

The officer said they were also checking financial transactions which may “run into crores”.

The first investigator said that pre-surgery medical tests on the potential sellers were done at two diagnostic centres named AS Health Square and Delhi Institute of Functional Imaging, both located in Hauz Khas. A field agent who worked on commission basis for AS Health Square, Abdul Latif, got the tests done and he was paid suitably by the racketeers.

“Some procedural lapses such as conducting tests without any doctor’s prescription were found on the part of the diagnostic centres. We are seeking help from legal experts to ascertain if any action can be taken against the centres for the lapses,” the officer said.

When contacted, Dr. Sandeep Dua, who runs AS Health Square, said, “As far as patients related to the kidney transplant scam are concerned, their only basic tests were conducted and a few of them had shown online prescriptions of doctors. It is difficult to know what the patients are doing with our test reports. We followed all the procedures and our records have already been verified by the police. We are cooperating in their investigation.”

Rajesh Singh, centre manager of Delhi Institute of Functional Imaging, said his centre has a tie-up with AS Health Square and tests of the donors in question were done on the latter’s reference. “The documentation work was done by AS Heath Square. We still got the patients fill a consent form at our centre. We are not at fault,” said Singh.