A nexus between kidney agents in the city and doctors in Sri Lanka was busted by the Hyderabad police, which has been investigating the death of a city youth in Sri Lanka. However, the death of Dinesh Maru in Sri Lanka was due to cardiac arrest, confirmed the Indian police.
The Central Crime Station of India arrested three agents - N Venkatesham (38), a computer hardware expert from Nalgonda, DSP Srinivas (25), an MBA student from Vanasthalipuram and Govind Suryanarayana (29) from Vijayawada.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma said the trio allegedly facilitated the sale of kidneys. The trio had allegedly sent at least 21 persons to Colombo from Hyderabad. Sometimes the donor victims become agents on return. According to him, the gang has several agents operating in cities like Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Kurukshetra apart from Hyderabad.
Detailing the case, which stemmed from a complaint lodged by one Ganesh, brother of the deceased Dinesh (who had email conversations with the agents on kidney transplantation) suspected that his brother’s death was due to the kidney racket, the commissioner said the agents collect donor’s details from internet postings and used to inform a Sri Lankan doctor, who arranged for flight tickets, accommodation and surgeries at some selected hospitals,” Sharma said.
After settling a package with needy patients for Rs 30-Rs 50 lakh, the doctor used to pay only Rs 3-Rs 5 lakh to the donor while Rs 1.5 lakh to agents as their commission, he said.
“In this case, Dinesh had approached Venkatesham, who promised him Rs 5 lakh and accordingly he, along with one Kiran Kumar, left for Colombo on March 23. Kiran was also to sell his kidney along with Dinesh as per the deal,” Sharma said.
‘’On March 28, the duo along with another Indian Aram Zargar, who had undergone kidney surgery and got discharged went to the beach where Dinesh consumed beer, smoked heavily and swam in the sea. On the next day Dinesh and Kiran went to the hospital where Kiran was to be admitted for surgery,” the police chief said.
“But on reaching the hospital, Dinesh fell sick. He was then rushed to Colombo Government Hospital for treatment but on reaching there the doctors declared him brought dead,” Sharma said. Kiran Kumar hails from Chintalakodi in West Godavari district.
He along with Dinesh and Aram Zargar (from Kashmir) travelled to Colombo from Chennai on April 23. He confirmed that Dinesh died even before a surgery was performed on him. Though a case under the Information Technology Act was registered, various sections of the AP Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1995 have also been added, Express News Service of India reported.
