The Director of Seven Hills Hospitals in Visakhapatnam was arrested by a special police team from Mangalabag Police station, Cuttack, Odisha, on Monday for his alleged involvement in a kidney sale racket.
However, the police were not able to take Dr. N. Prabhakar Babu into custody as he had fallen sick and they have to wait till his recovery. The incident came to light when one Namita Nayak of Cuttack, who had donated her kidney to Mohan Chandra Lenka of Bhubaneswar, lodged a complaint at Mangalabag police station, stating that she was lured into the surgery and the financial commitment was not fulfilled.
As per reports, one Sharmistha Nayak along with her husband Dilip Nayak lured Namita into the kidney sale for a promised sum of Rs. 5 lakh, and post surgery that took place in Seven Hills Hospital, she was paid only Rs. 2 lakh.
The entire deal was allegedly worked out by one Biswaranjan Khatua, a middleman, for Rs. 25 lakh.
While Sharmistha, Dilip, and four others Niranjan Choudhury alias Nirakar, Jagabandhu Lenka and Niranjan Pradhan, have been taken into custody, Biswaranjan is still at large.
As per Transplantation of Human Organ Act, one among the conditions is that organs can be donated by relatives of the patient. According to sources in Seven Hills Hospital, the middlemen produced Namita as Bonita Lenka wife of Mohan Chandra Lenka with the help of forged documents.
Even the voter ID card and residence proof were forged. Believing the documents, the hospital authorities had gone ahead with the surgery, sometime in March this year.