New Delhi: Four days after police busted a kidney racket in Delhi’s Apollo Hospital, the kingpin of the gang T Rajkumar Rao and three others were arrested on Tuesday. Police said 10 doctors are likely to be questioned in connection with the case.
Rao, aged around 40 years, who is believed to be associated with similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, was arrested in West Bengal. He will be produced before a court there and brought to Delhi on transit remand, a senior police official said.
Rao, who was under police scanner for operating similar rackets in Jalandhar, Coimbatore and Hyderabad, was identified with the interrogation of the middlemen in the racket and teams were rushed to several states to track him down.
The official said all ten doctors in Apollo Hospital's internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries will be quizzed. The committee comprises senior doctors working at the hospital, independent doctors and a government doctor.
Earlier in the day, police arrested a married couple and a woman, all identified as kidney donors associated with the racket.
The three were identified as Umesh and Nilu, who are husband and wife residing in Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five accused arrested last week.
During interrogation, Umesh and Nilu told police that they had sold their kidneys for Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively as they were in urgent need of money for their minor son's leg surgery.
They also told police that when they came to know about the actual price in which their kidneys were sold, they felt deceived, an official privy to the investigation said.
The third accused, Mamta, is the one who actually led police to the kidney racket.
On the day it was busted, Mamta was spotted indulging in a heated exchange with her husband, Devashish Moulik, and when the police intervened, on receiving a call regarding the matter, they were stunned by what they heard. Mamta accused Devashish of cheating her with the amount he received after her kidney was sold.
During investigation, it came to light that Devashish had offered his own kidney first but on being declared unfit he convinced his wife to do so, the official said.
Meanwhile, Indraprastha Apollo hospital has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to study the existing system for giving approval for transplant of an organ in the hospital.
The hospital has invited former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and eminent jurist Justice Mukul Mudgal to head the committee. Others joining him will be forensic expert, N C Sood along with an eminent medical professional.
"The committee will study the existing system for authorisation in the hospital and give its recommendations to ensure that the current approval mechanisms are strengthened.
"In the interest of patient safety, it would also suggest safeguards to ensure that such an incident is not repeated in the future," a statement from the Hospital said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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