Murder-for-kidney-money cases unearthed

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BANGALORE: Illegal kidney donations are passe. The case of an innocent villager, who was killed allegedly by a broker and robbed of his money earned through kidney donation, has now come to light in Bidadi taluk.<br />Health Task Force Chairman and Lok Ayukta Vigilance Director (Health, Education and Family Welfare) Dr H.Sudarshan says a case of another donor, who was killed in Bangalore, has also been revealed, as an offshoot of the Bidadi case.<br />Speaking to <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India</span> on Thursday, Dr Sudarshan said the incident which took place in January 1999 unfolded only on Wednesday, when Public Prosecutor Anne Gowda approached him for a file pertaining to an unrelated transplant in which Shivanna alias Shiva was killed by a kidney broker Gangadaraiah, his wife Yeshodamma and two others, to take away Rs 45,000 paid to Shiva for donating the kidney.<br />Since the court had tried in vain for three years with the authorisation committee to get details of the transplant, it approached Dr Sudarshan for help, which he acknowledged in an hour.<br />Shiva was operated at a private hospital on January 21, 1999. A divorcee and auto driver, he was paid Rs 45,000 by Gangadaraiah in front of a witness, Krishnaiah. Five days after the operation, Shiva was taken by the kidney broker to Byamangala, near Bidadi, in the guise of being offered help for post-operation rest and killed and put him in a tank with the help of another broker Chennappa.<br />While the accused are out on bail, the doctor who conducted the operation is yet to be implicated.<br />Dr Sudarshan says he is worried how many such similar cases are yet to come to light. ``While going through the details of this case, we stumbled upon another donor''s death in Bangalore.'''' The person, operated upon in one of the leading hospitals of Bangalore, where unrelated donations are rampant, was killed for gains too.<br />Dr Sudarshan narrated several cases where husbands and wives have been ``exchanged on paper'''' for the benefit of unrelated kidney donations.</div> </div>