Kidney racket: Police to investigate role of whistleblower Singh

Singh told the DHS inquiry committee that Bijendra Bisen, the main accused, promised to pay him Rs 5 lakh for his kidney but went back on his word and exploited his desperate situation to rope him into the racket to earn some money.

The police said on Thursday that they will investigate the role of kidney racket whistleblower Sundar Singh, who told an inquiry committee of the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) that he had been roped into the scam by the other accused after they persuaded him to donate a kidney to a woman he didn’t know and then refused to pay him.

The committee’s report named 23-year-old Singh as one of the agents involved in the kidney racket unearthed at L H Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, last month. Senior police officials confirmed they are looking for Singh, Vinod Patel, accused in an interstate kidney racket exposed in Madhya Pradesh in 2008, and a certain Saeed Khan.

Singh told the DHS inquiry committee that Bijendra Bisen, the main accused, promised to pay him Rs 5 lakh for his kidney but went back on his word and exploited his desperate situation to rope him into the racket to earn some money.

A source in the Mumbai police confirmed that the DHS report named Singh as one of the facilitators of the racket and recommended including him in the police’s investigation. Before details of the DHS report were revealed, the police believed that Singh was a solely a victim. A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “Singh said that he temporarily worked as an agent at the hospital, suing fake identity cards provided to him by Bisen. As his name has come up in the [DHS] report, we will investigate his role more thoroughly and see if he was involved in any other illegal transplants.”