A Bangladeshi runs transboundary kidney racket

The "mastermind" behind the kidney transplant racket recently busted in Delhi is a Bangladeshi national and both donors and receivers in the case were also from Bangladesh, according to Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police's Crime Branch Amit Goel.

Seven persons, including an Indian doctor, have so far been arrested in connection with the racket, he said in a statement yesterday.

All the people in the racket are suspected of having links with Bangladesh, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Goel said, "We've arrested a person named Rasel who used to arrange the patients and donors and a female doctor working with the gang has also been arrested."

"Her role in this case was that she was facilitating organ transplants even when she was aware that the donor and receiver were not blood relations [as required by Indian law], making her part of the conspiracy," the DCP said.

The arrested Indian doctor has been identified as Vijaya Kumari, 50, from Delhi-based Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

Now suspended by Apollo, she was the lone doctor working with the gang and had performed around 15-16 transplants between 2021 and 2023 in Noida-based Yatharth Hospital, a private medical facility, reports Indian Express, quoting police.

In the alleged racket, records show, patients from Bangladesh were lured by a network of middlemen, Kumari, and their associates for organ transplantation in major hospitals around the Indian capital.

The Bangladeshis involved in the racket were named in the news report as Rasel, 29, from Kushtia, and his associates Md Sumon Miya, 28, Md Rokon, 26, and Ifti. All except Ifti were arrested.

Together with Tripura-based Ratish Pal, they lured potential donors from Bangladesh to Delhi, where the donors would receive four to five lakh rupees for their kidneys. Recipients were charged 25 to 30 lakh rupees, a source told Indian Express.

Donors and recipients coordinated their stay, treatment and tests through a medical tourism company named Al Shifa, sources said.  

Rasel rented a flat in Jasola village, where potential donors stayed and met with recipients.

A source told Indian Express, "Five to six donors were staying at this rented flat. All the tests before the transplant were completed. The recipients would also meet the donors at the flat."

During the arrests, a bag recovered from Rasel's room contained nine passports, two diaries, and a register. These passports belonged to kidney donors and recipients and the diary reportedly had details of monetary transactions between the donor and recipient.