The commissionerate police on Saturday seized records from the National Kidney Hospital near BMC Chowk in Jalandhar in connection with the kidney racket they claimed to have busted late Friday, and arrested a helper working with a city-based laboratory.
The accused, Harminder Lal, is a resident of Raheempur village in the district, and works with the Sunder Lab, a collection centre of the Dr Lal Path Lab, on Garha Road in the city.
Lal’s wife Manjeet is also working as a technician in the laboratory, which is being run in the name of Deepa Aggarwal, wife of Dr Rajesh Aggarwal, owner of the National Kidney Hospital. He has been sent to two-day police remand.
Four persons, including main accused Junaid Ahmed Khan, were arrested on Friday in connection with the case.
Khan, a resident of Faridabad in Haryana, is learned to have told the police that as many as six transplant surgeries, including one on him, were conducted at the hospital since July last year. He has also identified some of the recipients from the records seized from the hospital.
Khan himself underwent a transplant surgery to donate kidney at the hospital in July 2014, when he was brought here by his Delhi-based friend Deepak Misra, sources have informed Hindustan Times.
Both Misra and Khan worked at a call centre in the national capital. Khan told the police that he had received Rs 3.5 lakh for donating his kidney and thereafter started working as a middleman to get commission.
{{/usCountry}}Both Misra and Khan worked at a call centre in the national capital. Khan told the police that he had received Rs 3.5 lakh for donating his kidney and thereafter started working as a middleman to get commission.
{{/usCountry}}He further informed that the police that he had taken `8 lakh for arranging kidney for a party.
The parties (recipients) belonged to Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and other states, it has been learnt.
Police commissioner Yurinder Singh Hayer has formed a special investigation team (SIT) that will headed by deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rajinder Singh while additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) (investigation) J Elanchezhian, ADCP-II Amrik Singh Pawar, assistant commissioner of police (Model Town) BIS Kahlon and SHO Navdeep Singh are other members.
ADCP-II Amrik Singh Pawar, when contacted, claimed, “Following revelations made by Khan, our team seized records from the National Kidney hospital and we are investigating the same.” Pawar said before jumping into any conclusion, they would conduct a detailed probe first and then ask doctor(s) to join the probe.
Deepa Aggarwal, when reached for comment, said, “Nothing illegal has taken place in the hospital. We have all records of patients and donors with their addresses, photographs, videos, reports of blood and DNA samples.”
She said her husband is presently out of the country to take part in a conference and he will be back by the next week.
“We are also shocked and we are co-operating with the police. We also want that the real picture should come out in this connection,” Deepa Aggarwal added. The police said Khan along with others used to prepare fake identity proofs (IDs) of donors to fulfil the conditions laid down as per law that mandates that only blood relatives or a spouse can donate the organ.