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Surgeons flown in, donors and hosps arranged: Kanpur’s kidney racket ran like a company
The police, who have so far arrested six people including three hospital operators, are now on the lookout for five doctors they believe ran the entire operation
KANPUR Behind Kanpur’s illegal kidney transplant racket –in which an estimated 40 to 50 procedures were carried out across private hospitals over five years – was an organised syndicate of five doctors, each assigned a specific role. Operating with ’corporate precision’, together, they controlled everything – from arranging donors, trapping recipients to flying in surgical teams at places where the procedures were undertaken and ensuring no medical records were ever left behind.
The police, who have so far arrested six people including three hospital operators, are now on the lookout for five doctors they believe ran the entire operation.
The five, all believed to be between 35 and 40 years of age, are identified by investigators only by their first names: Rohit, Afzal, Vaibhav, Amit and Anurag. Their ground coordinator in Kanpur was Shivam Aggarwal, an ambulance driver who liaised with hospitals and has since been arrested. Police teams have been dispatched to Dehradun, Meerut, Noida and Lucknow to trace the five. None have been found yet.
DCP (west) SM Qasim Abidi said the police are working to establish the full extent of the network. “As would be in any organisation, these doctors have specific roles. Our teams are searching for this group to learn the actual extent of this racket,” he said.
The division of work within the syndicate was precise and deliberate. Dr Rohit handled the most sensitive logistical task — assembling surgical teams for each procedure. “He used to call in doctors by air; they would land in Lucknow and come down to Kanpur by road,” said a senior police officer involved in the investigation.
“Shivam has told us that the identities of these doctors were known only to Rohit — he alone dealt with the surgeons and nursing staff,” he added. The teams were sourced from Lucknow and Noida. On March 3 and 16 alone, two separate teams, each comprising 10 members, including surgeons, anaesthetists and nursing staff, were brought in for transplants. The scale of coordination involved suggests the syndicate had been refining its methods over several years.
Dr Afzal, last known to be working at Alpha Hospital in Meerut, ran a Telegram group through which donors and recipients were arranged. The group included doctors who vouched for the safety and success of the procedure to prospective donors, providing a veneer of medical legitimacy to what was, in effect, an organ bazaar. Doctors Vaibhav, Anurag and Amit handled donor coordination directly, which officials said required considerable persuasion. Many donors came from economically vulnerable backgrounds and were lured with the promise of large sums they ultimately never received in full, said investigators.
One donor recruited through this network, Ayush Chaudhary, 24, was promised ₹9 lakh and paid ₹3.5 lakh. His kidney was transplanted into a woman on March 16 for ₹80 lakh. He is currently under medical supervision at LLR Hospital in Kanpur. The gap between what donors were paid and what recipients were charged, sometimes tenfold, points to the scale of profit the syndicate was extracting from each procedure.
Two of the most recent transplants have been identified. One kidney went to a South African national — police have only a first name, Arabica, and another to Parul Tomar, a mother of two from Muzaffarnagar. The procedures took place at Ahuja Hospital and Medlife Hospital, respectively. Ahuja Hospital is run by Dr Surjit Singh Ahuja and his wife Dr Preeti Ahuja, vice-president of the Indian Medical Association’s Kanpur chapter. Dr Rajesh Kumar operated Medlife. All three have been arrested.
Aggarwal coordinated with the hospitals, which were paid heavily for the use of their operation theatres. Dr Singh has allegedly confessed to receiving ₹3.75 lakh for OT use, said an official. To conceal the procedures, patients were admitted under the cover of gall bladder surgery and no bed-head tickets were maintained at any of the facilities. “The hospital owners knew what was happening in their hospitals but they still joined in,” said an investigator.
Police describe this as one of the most structured illegal transplant networks they have encountered. “We believe this is one of the biggest and most well-oiled rackets to have been exposed in recent times. Our focus right now is on locating these individuals and securing their arrest,” said Abidi.
MBA student sells kidney; cops suspect girlfriend’s financial need as motive
A 24-year-old MBA student is currently recovering in a Kanpur hospital after selling his kidney in an illegal organ trading racket. While the student claims the drastic step was taken to pay his college fees, police investigations suggest the immediate motive was to fulfill a girlfriend’s financial demands.
Ayush Chaudhary, a fourth-semester MBA student at Graphic Era Management College in Dehradun and a native of Samastipur, Bihar, told authorities he resorted to selling his organ after a loan application failed.
Following his father’s tragic death by suicide, Chaudhary claimed he bore the financial burden of his mother and three siblings. “He said he bore the responsibility of four family members and needed money for his fees,” said DCP (west) SM Qasim Abidi.
The loan Chaudhary applied for did not come through. Subsequently, he turned to a Telegram group run by Dr Afzal, a Meerut-based doctor at the centre of the alleged kidney racket in Kanpur.
Officials, however, said bank details and call records indicated that the more immediate reason was a girlfriend who was in financial need. “The transaction and call records reflect that,” said an official.
Police intend to question Chaudhary in detail once he has fully recovered.
He was brought to Kanpur by Dr Afzal and Dr Vaibhav, both of whom are being sought by police. He had been promised ₹9 lakh for the kidney, but received ₹3.5 lakh. The organ was transplanted into Parul Tomar, 43, from Muzaffarnagar, on March 16, for which the broker allegedly charged her family over ₹80 lakh.
Chaudhary is admitted to LLR Hospital in Kanpur, where his condition is stated to be stable. “All his parameters are largely normal,” an official said. The health department has also initiated a separate inquiry into his role as a donor, as he proceeded with the donation without completing any of the legal formalities.
Police said Chaudhary also has a prior connection to cyber crime, the details of which are under investigation. “His cyber crime links have surfaced and are being examined,” said Abidi.
