Delhi kidney racket: Mastermind, three donors held

The alleged mastermind and three kidney donors, including two women, in the organ trafficking racket at Indraprastha Apollo hospital here have been arrested, Delhi Police said on Tuesday.

T. Rajkumar was arrested from Kolkata along with three donors -- two women from Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur and a man from West Bengal's Siliguri.

"We arrested the mastermind of the kidney racket T. Rajkumar alias Raju from Kolkata and three kidney donors, who include two women," Deputy Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Randhawa told IANS.

He, however, did not elaborate on Rajkumar's role in the racket

Police busted the kidney racket on June 2 with the arrest of two Indraprastha Apollo hospital employees and three touts on the charge of persuading economically-needy people to sell their kidneys.

A case was then registered at Sarita Vihar police station here.

Police had said Shailesh Saxena, 31, and Aditya Singh, 24, who work as personal secretaries to two Apollo hospital doctors, were held for organising the kidney trade.

The three arrested touts were identified as Aseem Sikdar, 37, Satya Prakash, 30, and Devashish Moulik, 30.

Investigators said the members of the gang persuaded poor people from various parts of the country to donate their kidney in exchange for money.

"They also prepared forged papers including the identity proofs to establish the relationship between the donors and the recipients."

The recipients were charged large sums while the donors were fobbed off with paltry amounts.

People falling prey to the gang come from various parts of the country like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

Police sources said the hospital staff used to inform Sikdar about the need for a kidney, and he would then arrange the donors with the help of his associates Prakash and Moulik.

Police have so far questioned several doctors and staff members of Apollo hospital in the case.

--IANS

rak/vd/dg