9 held as kidney transplant racket busted in Telangana
State health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha ordered a comprehensive inquiry by CID into the racket that has links to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
The Rachakonda police in Telangana on Saturday announced the arrest of nine people in connection with the alleged illegal kidney transplant racket, while another six accused are still absconding, even as state health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha ordered a comprehensive inquiry by Crime Investigation Department (CID) into the racket that has links to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Rachakonda police commissioner G Sudhir Babu said at a press conference that the Saroornagar police, in coordination with the special operations team (SOT) of the LB Nagar zone and a team of doctors from the Ranga Reddy district medical and health office (DMHO) busted the illegal kidney transplant racket being operated by the management of Alakananda Hospital located at Doctors Colony in Saroor Nagar on the evening of January 21.
“We arrested hospital managing director Dr Guntupally Sumanth and his assistant, Narasani Gopi, on January 23. They were produced before the court on the same day and remanded in judicial custody for two weeks,” he said.
On Saturday, police arrested general surgeon Siddamshetty Avinash, who is the prime accused (A-1) in the case, mediators Ponnuswamy Pradeep and Suraj Mishra (both from Karnataka), besides medical assistants Ramavath Ravi, Sapavath Ravinder, Sapavath Harish and Podila Sai — all from Nalgonda district in Telangana.
“All these seven accused will be produced before the court for judicial custody,” the commissioner said.
Two other surgeons, Dr Raj Shekhar from Tamil Nadu and Dr Sohib from Jammu and Kashmir, who allegedly performed the kidney transplants, along with their assistants Pavan, Purna and Laxman from Visakhapatnam and a mediator Shankar from Tamil Nadu, are still absconding. Police seized a car and cash worth ₹5 lakh, besides 10 mobile phones and surgical material kit from the possession of those arrested, said Sudhir Babu.
Based on a complaint filed by deputy DMHO Dr M Geetha, the Saroornagar police registered a case against the accused under sections 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 143 (1) (human trafficking), 318 (4) (cheating and dishonesty of inducing people) and 3 (5) (jointly committing crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, besides relevant sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.
According to the police commissioner, during the raid on the Alakananda Hospital on January 21, police found two women kidney donors, Nasreen Banu Eliyash (22) and S Firdoush (40), both from Tamil Nadu, besides two recipients B S Raja Shekar (68) and Bhat Prabha alias Krupalatha (40) from Karnataka.
Both the recipients had already undergone kidney transplantation surgeries and were undergoing treatment at the hospital. The four individuals were shifted to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad for better medical care, police said.
“Police took hospital managing director Sumanth into custody and on questioning, he revealed that Dr Avinash and his team had been conducting illegal kidney transplantation surgeries at the hospital for the past seven months,” Sudhir Babu said.
Investigations revealed that Avinash, who had completed his MBBS in China and pursued a diploma in surgery in Pune, had run a private hospital at Saidabad in 2022. As the hospital was running in losses, he joined hands with a Visakhapatnam resident, Laxman, who offered to help him make money through illegal kidney transplants.
“Laxman assured Avinash that he would be paid ₹2.5 lakh per surgery and that he would handle the arrangements for doctors, assistants, donors, and recipients. Between April 2023 and June 2024, Avinash facilitated surgeries at his hospital,” the commissioner said.
Laxman was part of a gang of mediators Pavan alias Leon and Purna alias Abhishik from Vizag. They were engaging main surgeons Raja Shekhar Perumal from Tamil Nadu and Sohib from Jammu & Kashmir, along with the operating theatre assistants Shankar (Tamil Nadu), Pradeep, and Suraj (Karnataka) for conducting kidney transplants. These individuals also arranged for donors and recipients, police said.
“The mediators used to collect ₹55– ₹60 lakh from each recipient, out of which they would give ₹5 lakh to the donor, ₹2.5 lakh to Avinash, ₹10 lakh to the lead surgeon and around ₹30,000 to the five operating theatre assistants, and the remaining money was shared by the organisers and mediators,” the police commissioner added.
In June 2024, Avinash closed his hospital due to personal constraints and approached Sumanth of Alakananda Hospital, who agreed to provide the operation theatre at his hospital for the illegal kidney transplant surgeries. For this, Sumanth was paid ₹1.5 lakh per surgery. “They conducted about (20) KTP surgeries at Alakananda Hospital in December 2024,” the police commissioner said.
Investigations revealed that some of the doctors in the team had performed illegal kidney transplant surgeries at a few other hospitals in Hyderabad and various other places in India, police said.
State health minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, who reviewed the developments in the illegal kidney transplant racket ordered a CID probe into the matter.
The minister went through the report submitted by a four-member committee, headed by former Osmania General Hospital superintendent Dr B Nagendra, on the racket. As per the preliminary findings of the committee, the hospital did not have permission for transplantation services and the surgeries were performed illegally.
“The committee also said that people from Telangana as well Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were involved in the racket. Since it is an inter-state racket, we are handing over the case to the CID to make further probe. The information was provided to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments to seek their cooperation,” he added.
