A nephrologist with Vinayaga Mission Hospital in Salem, V.M. Ganesan, was arrested on Wednesday night by a special police team formed here to nab people involved in kidney trade.
B. Hari Baskar, an ambulance driver and a prime accused in the racket, surrendered in the court of Judicial Magistrate II in Salem on Thursday.
Police were on the look out for Hari Baskar as soon as they got some details from N.S. Ayyavu, the tout, who was first arrested.
Four other touts and a man who offered to sell his kidney were already arrested.
Ganesan is the first doctor to be arrested in this case and the police are looking at the possibility of doctors, hospitals and their staff in various districts in the western region being involved in the illegal trade.
Superintendent of Police Asra Garg told The Hindu that Dr. Ganesan was the second in command at the kidney transplantation wing of the hospital. The doctor was summoned by the District Crime Branch (DCB) for an inquiry, based on a complaint filed by A. Kathavarayan of Pennagaram that the nephrologist referred him to Ayyavu when he wanted a kidney for his father, Aiyar, both of whose kidneys had failed. Dr. Ganesan was arrested and produced before a magistrate, who remanded him in judicial custody. On Thursday, a police team seized from the Salem hospital some documents.
The District Crime Branch registered against the doctor a case under Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) and Section 19 of Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994.
