Kidney Racket Busted In Delhi's Apollo Hospital, 5 Persons Arrested

New Delhi: Five persons including two employees of a prominent multispeciality hospital in south east Delhi and three touts have been arrested on charges of running a kidney racket bringing donors from different parts of the country to the national capital.

The arrested accused include Aditya Singh and Shailesh Saxena, who worked as personal secretaries of Apollo hospital doctors for 3-4 years, said Mandeep Singh Randhawa, DCP (south east).

Information was received that the members of the gang would come to Apollo Hospital on June 2 for holding a meeting with a donor and relatives of the recipient. A raid was conducted and Aseem Sikdar, Satya Prakash and Devashish Moulik were caught on Thursday, he said.

The touts used to lure financially poor people from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country for donating kidney in return of Rs 3-4 lakh and were brought to Delhi and accommodated in hotels.

"Medical tests of recipient and donor were conducted and once the compatibility match was done, operations were conducted at Apollo Hospital," the officer said.

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"We are cooperating and providing all information required to help the police in their investigation pertaining to the alleged kidney sale racket," said a press statement by Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

Police was working on information about the gang that was actively involved in illegal trade of human organs.

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"It was learnt during investigation that the gang members used to prepare forged papers to establish the relationship between the donors and the recipients and the staff of Apollo were also involved in this racket," it said.

Interestingly, police got the lead about the gang after a fight involving a man and his wife whose kidney had been sold by the former without her consent, a police source said.

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One of the arrested tout Devashish Moulik, a native of New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal was active since 2014 and he even made his wife Maumita to donate kidney a month back, Mr Randhawa said.

Another arrested tout Satya Prakash, who belonged to Kanpur, had donated his kidney in 2014 and used to target potential donors and bring them to Delhi.

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Sikdar was the coordinator of the gang and would look after lodging of the donor, laboratory tests, meeting with relatives of recipients and negotiations for money, he said.

Five cases of organ sale have been detected with the recovery of large number of original files, CDs and documents seized by the police and further investigation is in progress, Mr Randhawa said.

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A case under different sections of IPC and Transplant of Human Organ Act (THOA) has been registered at Sarita Vihar police station in connection with the kidney racket.

The arrest of the five accused has also led to recovery of fake id proofs such as voter photo identity cards and Aadhaar cards, laptops.

The entire documentation and verification process for organ transplant was bypassed by using forged papers related with agreement of donor, relationship with donor, id and address proofs, proof of marriage and clearance of case by Hospital Internal Authorisation Committee, Mr Randhawa said.

All the necessary documents were made fraudulently by affixing donor's photo showing the person as recipient's relative using documents of a genuine relative, he added.

Apollo hospital denied involvement in the kidney racket emphasising that it was a "victim" of a well-orchestrated operation by the accused.

"The police in their investigation has identified secretarial staff of some doctors, who have been accused of being involved in the alleged racket. We reiterate that these are not employees of the hospital. While all due precautions were conducted, the use of fake and forged documents was used for this racket with a criminal intent. The hospital has been a victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital," the statement by hospital stated.

The hospital also claimed that in order to ensure compliance with the law and diligence in process, it has an independent body with external members also for according consent for any transplant surgery.

This Committee goes through all documents necessary to ensure that requirements under the concerned Act are complied with. Further, the hospital has ensured that all due process as per the law has been followed, added the hospital statement.