-The Hindu
Investigations reveal that one of the accused has been running the racket for the past five years
Bangalore: Intensifying investigations into the illegal kidney transplantation racket, involving government officials and major hospitals in the city that has been busted, the Ramanagaram district police detained a few more persons for questioning on Thursday.
The detained persons are part of the kidney sale network thriving in and around Bangalore. A senior police officer, who is part of the investigation team, said that the detentions are based on the information provided by the tout identified as Srikanth from Ramnagaram. Preliminary investigations revealed that Srikanth has been running this racket for the past five years.
The Kumbalgod police, who registered a suo motu complaint on Wednesday, said that they are on the lookout for the donors and the recipients to make them party in the case.
The police while looking at the tout angle, are also probing the involvement of major hospitals, role of Food and Civil Supplies Department officials, who helped create fake documents, and jurisdiction police officials, who verified the documents.
Victims of this racket hail from financially weaker sections are spread across Mandya, Ramanagaram and Bangalore districts, and in many cases have not received even the promised sum of Rs. 1.5 lakh though each illegal transplantation was charged up to Rs. 20 lakh.
Meanwhile, The Hindu’s independent investigations in Mandya district revealed that the racket is indeed thriving in rural pockets and villages here.
For instance, in Halebudunuru here, the organised racket involves several women “donating” their kidneys to recipients, mostly from Bangalore.
All of them had their surgeries performed in leading multi-speciality hospitals in the city. In every instance, the donors testified before a committee and claimed to be willing donors or “well-wishers” of people, who they had never met until the “deal” was fixed.