International kidney racket busted, MBA selling kidneys arrested

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, July 19

Telangana Police busted an international kidney racket that was spread across foreign shores as far as Sri Lanka and Turkey for a hefty amount by luring poor and unsuspecting people.

The police said one person had been arrested and “it seemed that the racket had been operating since long”.

The incident came to light when a family who had paid Rs 34 lakh for a kidney complained to the police.

Police in Hyderabad arrested 25-year-old DS Pavan Srinivas, a native of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and a resident of Hyderabad, who himself had donated a kidney and after realising the huge money potential, started arranging kidney donors.

Joint Commissioner AR Srinivas said the accused, an MBA graduate, facilitated around nine kidney transplants. For each transplant, the accused used to earn a commission of around Rs 6 lakh.

After a family paid Rs 34 lakh towards the cost of a kidney transplant surgery, accommodation, and payment to a kidney donor in Sri Lanka or Turkey, the accused failed to fulfil his promise.

As a result, a complaint was lodged with the Banjara Hill police station that registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against Pavan.

The police said after collecting the money, the accused had cut off contacts with the family and was missing.

Bijjala Bharathi had complained to Banjara Hills police station that they came in contact with Srinivas at a hospital in the city where her husband, a dialysis patient, was undergoing treatment.

He promised them to provide donor and get the transplantation done through his known sources in Sri Lanka or Turkey for which he collected the money, police said in a statement.

The police investigations revealed that the accused spent the amount lavishly in casino games in Sri Lanka and cheated the family by not arranging the donor and transplant.

Copies of the passports, which were obtained from the complainant and other donors for travel to Turkey and Sri Lanka were also seized.

Police further said the accused had donated his kidney a few years ago in Sri Lanka to tide over a financial situation and come in contact with some doctors there.

To make easy money he came up with a plan to work as an agent to provide donors for needy patients. He ran campaigns on social media to lure gullible people willing to sell their kidneys for money and paid them very less after extracting the organ. He would collect anywhere between Rs 30 and 50 lakhs from rich patients for the surgery, Srinivas said.