M A I N   N E W S

Gang selling kidneys busted
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 22
The “toothless” Authorisation Committee, headed by the Principal, Government Medical College, is under a cloud as the local police has busted the biggest gang so far, “selling kidneys”. The police has arrested 14 persons, including donors, middlemen and musclemen, in this connection.

The hapless migrants who sold their kidneys to rich persons through middlemen for meagre amount at Amritsar on Sunday. Mr Kunwar Vijay Partap , SP (City ), is also seen in the picture. — Photo Rajiv Sharma

The police revealed startling information about the plight of poor “donors” who had been kept in bondage in certain houses by the musclemen till their kidneys were removed at Amritsar and Jalandhar hospitals against payment from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 only. However, the middlemen get more than Rs 60,000 as commission in each case from doctors and the recipients.

The police has also arrested some “donors” who had furnished false affidavits that they had been working as domestic servants with the recipients of the kidneys for the past 10 years and wanted to donate their organs on “humanitarian grounds”. One such donor who was rejected by the Authorisation Committee was later cleared for obvious reasons. Shockingly, one of the recipients was a citizen of Nepal, who succeeded in getting a kidney by submitting a wrong address of Lucknow.

Giving details of the busting of the gang, Kunwar Vijay Partap , SP (City), said at least two more gangs, which had been operating in Amritsar, were yet to be busted. He said the kingpin of the gang, Yogesh Kumar, alias Tinku, is a resident of Haryana who was arrested after a chase. The recipients would contact him on his mobile while a number of his agents would lure poor “donors” from New Delhi. The other two accomplices of Tinku, Lachhman and Raj Kumar, had also been arrested by the local police. The SP, however, said two more gangs, led by Pankaj Gupta and Rajan Puri, were yet to be busted. The three “donors”, Raju Mehra of Ujain (Madhya Pradesh), Ravi Yadav of Dehra Dun and Raju of Rampur (Uttar Pradesh), who had sold their kidneys by furnishing wrong certificates had also been arrested by the police. The Authorisation Committee had cleared their cases without proper verification.

Similarly, the persons who were brought from different parts of the country for selling their kidneys through the well-entrenched mafia had also been arrested. They are Gaurav Yadav (Haryana), Opender (Bihar), Raj Kumar (UP), Ravi Sahni (UP), Umesh (Nagpur), Dalip Singh (Bihar) and Prem from Manipur.

Raju of Rampur (Uttar Pradesh) said he had sold his kidney to Sri Pandey, a resident of Nepal, who had given a wrong address of Lucknow.

The arrested persons revealed that most of the kidneys were transplanted at the local Kakkar Hospital and New Roobi Hospital, Jalandhar.

Much before the unearthing of the scam of selling kidneys by Indians to patients in the UK, which had shaken the world, the selling of organs was reported by the local media which had gone unnoticed.