Kidney racket busted; 4 arrested

HYDERABAD: Task Force sleuths have busted an international kidney transplant racket and arrested four persons in the city.
On a tip-off, a West Zone Task Force team arrested racket kingpin Hirdesh Saxena, 60, a doctor from Shirdi, and his associates K Raghavender, a businessman from Thattiannaram in Hayatnagar, A Ashok, 22, a student from Yellareddyguda, and Sanjay Kumar Jain, 32, a passport agent from Lal Darwaza.
Addressing the media here on Monday, Hyderabad police commissioner M Mahendar Reddy said that main accused Dr Saxena, who completed MBBS and MD from Bhopal University, had been operating the illegal kidney transplant racket with the help of the other accused, who used to scour for donors. “The kidney transplants used to take place at three hospitals in Colombo and a facility in Tehran,” the commissioner added.
After the donors were identified, Sanjay Kumar Jain helped them in getting passports if they did not have one and also assisted them in getting a tourist visa to Sri Lanka and Iran (transplant locations).
For each kidney transplant, Dr Saxena charged over Rs 30 lakh from the recipients, who used to be picked up by his associates through their contacts in various hospitals and dialysis centres in Telangana, AP, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Of the Rs 30 lakh, Saxena used to pay Rs 13 lakh to the hospitals, Rs 3 to 4 lakh to the associates, Rs 5 lakh to the donor and the remaining Rs 8 lakh for himself.
Raghavender came in contact with Dr Saxena a year ago when he wanted to sell his kidney. “Raghavender and his wife Sweta had sold their kidneys. The transplant took place at Moheb Hospital in Tehran,” the commissioner said.
After that, Raghavender used to work as an agent of Saxena, who also ran a charitable trust in Shiridi. The hospitals in Colombo where the transplants used to take place have been identified as Western Hospital, Lanka Hospital and Navaloka Hospital.
According to the commissioner, the accused had managed to send five donors to Iran so far, including K Raghavender, his wife K Swetha, Shareef, Rafiq and Manoj and five donors to Sri Lanka namely Rasheed Bade Malik, VCK Naidu, Pandu Ranga Rao, A Ashok and Hiraman Dinesh Tayade. The donors are from Hyderabad, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
The patients, who had received kidneys, have been identified as Imran, Amay, Gyanchand Dhaga, Vikas, Jackey, Sudheer and Anand Singh among others. All of them were from other states in India. Police have also identified several persons who were ready to sell their kidneys.
By working out leads, Task Force sleuths arrested the accused from the house of one A Ashok of Yellareddyguda and seized nine passports along with medical reports. They were handed over to the Central Crime Station (CCS) police for further probe.