HYDERABAD: The Saroornagar police, who are investigating the illegal kidney transplantation racket, will be going to Karnataka to trace multiple brokers involved in the human organ transplantation racket that was busted in the city on Sunday.
The police have also added the recipients of kidneys as accused in the FIR under Section 19A of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.
Meanwhile, a state-level inquiry committee submitted the report to the health secretary, detailing the issues of legality, trafficking, permissions and commercial issues which are punishable as per the Transplant Act.
The racket was busted on a tip-off received by district medical and health officer Dr B. Venkata Rao. After the police entered the scene and donors and recipients were moved to Gandhi Hospital, a state-level inquiry committee was formed under the aegis of the director of medical education (DME) Dr A. Vani.
The committee included Drs. B Nagender, former superintendent of Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Dr Kiran Mai and Dr Mallikharjun, both from OGH. The committee submitted its report to health secretary Dr Christina Chongthu.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Dr Vani said the committee looked into the legality of transplants and trafficking of the victims. “We could not look into the hospital part as it was sealed by police yesterday. We could not even speak to the person who was arrested,” she said.
Dr Nagender said there were multiple brokers involved in the case — different for recipients and donors. They struck a deal with the recipients for Rs 50 lakh and the donors, belonging to poor financial background without family support, were promised Rs 4 lakh each, which will be paid after the transplant was done.
“The broker who spoke to them was someone named Purnima and she got in touch with the donors from Tamil Nadu,” Dr Vani said.
The recipients were approached by a different broker. One of them, was probably a nurse but not practicing. Her husband is a civil engineer. The other recipient is a lawyer. “They did not approach any hospital for transplant but were supposedly manipulated by the brokers into believing that the process would be legal,” Dr Nagender said.
He said that the committee did not know the identify of doctors involved in the transplant at Alakananda Hospital. The hospital was owned by someone named Dr Sandeep who allegedly did his medical studies in Uzbekistan. G Sumanth, a non-medical person, was part of the management and was caught by the police.
The investigation into the illegal organ transplant racket is intensified as police continue to probe deeper, suspecting that the network of brokers behind the operation is much bigger. A special team was dispatched to Karnataka to uncover the full extent of the racket, with suspicions that the chain of illegal activities may stretch further than initially believed.
Police reportedly arrested a lab technician outsourced by the hospital involved in the transplant operation, although the police are yet to confirm the arrest.
Additionally, the police are focusing on the role of brokers who acted as mediators connecting both recipients and donors. It is believed that these brokers manipulate donors, often from poor financial backgrounds, into agreeing to the illegal procedure, promising them up to Rs 4 lakh after the transplant.
The recipients, mostly from affluent families, were allegedly convinced by brokers that the procedure was legitimate. A senior police officer confirmed that the recipients will also be charged for their involvement in the illegal transplant scheme.
