Police probing the recent kidney racket busted in Magadi are now investigating the alleged involvement of the members of the State-Level Authorisation Committee for Organ Transplants in the racket.
Ironically, the State-Level Authorisation Committee for Organ Transplants was put in place to check illegal renal transplants.
The Magadi Police arrested P.M. Vinod Kumar, a medico-social worker with the committee, for his alleged involvement in pushing cases with forged documents through the committee.
“We are trying to find evidence that the members of the committee who approved these cases, had the knowledge of the crime,” said Chandragupta, Superintendent of Police, Ramangaram.
The Medical Education Department has also launched a probe into the alleged involvement of the committee officials in the kidney racket.
Investigation into all earlier kidney rackets had stopped with the arrest of touts, who were soon out on bail and back in business, rendering any action ineffective. The same gang of touts have been arrested this time too.
Not just that, the probe has revealed that reputed private super-speciality hospitals in the city and in Mysuru are the main hubs of illegal renal transplants. Transplant co-ordinators working at these hospitals could be those who initiate these illegal renal transplants and complete the circle.
Police piece together the modus operandi
The Ramanagaram district police probing the illegal renal transplant racket have now pieced together the elaborate modus operandi.
How do the touts know of needy renal recipients? This is where the hospitals enter the fray, the police said. Most of the private hospitals have a separate unit for such transplants and those working there are called transplant co-ordinators, who are essentially fixers for organs from the hospital side, the police said. They act as intermediaries between the families of needy recipients and the touts, the investigation revealed.
Once the kidney touts are notified of a needy recipient, they begin their task. The notorious kidney tout Mahadevaiah, arrested for multiple kidney rackets, operates two separate gangs. While one gang specialises in finding suitable donors from the needy sections of Magadi and Ramanagaram belt, the other specialises in forging documents, getting police verification done and bagging an approval from the authorisation committee.
Documents are forged to show that the donor is a relative of the recipient, which are then used to get police verification certificate that will be produced before the authorisation committee. The touts have a person working with the committee — who the police now claim to be Vinod Kumar — push the case before the committee to get an approval for these transplants to be carried out in the hospitals.
“The probe has revealed that every step in the process of renal transplant is compromised. The donors, treated as victims of the touts, have also taken money and have things to hide. The entire process is compromised at the cost of law of the land. But it is collusive.”
Chandragupta
Superintendent of Police, Ramanagaram
