M A I N   N E W S

KIDNEY RACKET
Proof of middleman-doc nexus: IG
Tribune Reporters

Jalandhar, January 17
Relatives of 17 patients, who died after kidney transplantation conducted at various hospitals in the state in the past five years, have submitted affidavits giving details about how they managed to purchase kidneys with the help of some middlemen and doctors to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Rs 100 crore kidney scam.

This was revealed by the IG (Jalandhar Zone), Mr S.K.Sharma, while talking to this correspondent here today. He said the relatives of 17 recipients, who died after kidney transplantation, had submitted affidavits pertaining to the racket, involving some influential middlemen and doctors. “We are scrutinising the contents of affidavits and suitable action will be taken against those behind the racket, including arrest of some doctors, keeping in view the seriousness of the allegations levelled by the family members of such patients,” Mr Sharma said.

Mr Sharma said according to records seized from two hospitals in Jalandhar and from Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, it was found that 450 and 492 cases, respectively, of kidney transplantation were conducted during the past five years, wherein donors were not related to the patients. “The preliminary investigation, however, reveals that the addresses of most of the donors are fake. We have issued notices to the doctors concerned, donors and recipients to join the investigation even as we have enough evidence to establish links between middlemen and doctors, who fleeced innocent donors to mint huge money,” he added.

Mr Sharma said the SIT had decided to approach the court tomorrow to vacate the stay granted to the assistant of Dr P.K.Sareen of Kakkar Hospital, Amritsar, since the latter had failed to join the investigation despite the issuance of a notice in this regard.

Dr Parveen Kumar Sareen being produced in the District Courts, Amritsar, on Friday.   Kidney donors talk to the media in the court complex, Amritsar, on Friday. — Photos Rajiv Sharma

Mr Sharma denied that the SIT was probing the involvement of three Amritsar-based journalists in the racket. “We have not found any evidence against any journalist as reported in a section of media,” he said.

AMRITSAR: Donors who were arrested by the local police on September 22 last year on Friday accused both doctors and the police for their plight. They narrated startling facts before the media in the court complex.

Fourteen persons, including three donors, Raju of Madhya Pradesh, Ravi Yadav and Raju of UP, middlemen and would-have-been donors, were anguished over the harassment caused to them after busting of the biggest-ever kidney racket in the country last year. Shockingly, one of the donors, Raju, had donated his kidney to a person who belongs to Nepal, but had submitted his address of Lucknow with the help of the authorisation committee. While the would-have-been donors said they were harassed for no fault of theirs and were falsely implicated in the racket, the three persons who had donated their kidneys alleged that they were not given the promised money for their organs.

However, Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, SP (City), who had busted the gang, alleged that all 14 culprits, who had narrated their awful stories before the media on September 22 last year, were later ‘tutored’ by vested interests with a view to creating hurdles in the case. He said the accused persons should not be believed as they were arrested for committing the crime.