Kanpur kidney transplant racket: One more detained

Kanpur (UP), Apr 6 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Police have detained one more person in the kidney transplant racket, after uncovering a sprawling nexus involving unqualified practitioners and with possible international connections, officials said on Monday.

Kanpur Police Commissioner Raghubir Lal said that he has written to the health authorities in Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Noida and Gaziabad, urging a crackdown on fake practitioners.

So far, eight people have been arrested in the case, including two operation theatre technicians held earlier for assisting in surgeries and arranging equipment.

A key suspect, Pervez alias Saifi, a resident of Meerut, has been detained in the kidney transplant racket and is being questioned, Lal told PTI.

Rohan, a resident

of Kannauj and the alleged operator of ‘MedLife Hospital’, who was detained and questioned on April 4, has been let off with instructions not to leave the city and to join the investigation whenever required, Lal added.

The investigation has revealed links spanning multiple states, including Delhi, Mumbai, West Bengal and Haryana, with indications that foreign nationals may also have availed the illegal procedures.

The commissioner added that two police teams have been sent to trace Bhupendra, who allegedly posed as an MD despite only being a graduate, and ran a 30-bed facility in Lucknow under the name ‘United Hospital’ along with an associate, Rohit.

The multiple videos and chats recovered from the phone of alleged middleman Shivam Agarwal reveal the scale and brazenness of the operation, Lal said, adding that one clip purportedly shows Afzal reclining on bundles of cash, estimated at around Rs 15 lakh, suspected to be proceeds of the racket.

Police teams have been dispatched to Meerut and Gaziabad to trace him and recover the money, he said further.

In another clip, a South African woman, identified as Arebika, is seen in distress after a transplant at a private hospital, with the jailed ambulance driver Agarwal examining her with a stethoscope, raising serious concerns over medical malpractice.

Police are trying to trace her and other foreign patients who may have been lured to India for treatment, he said.

In a separate video, a Punjab-based patient identified as Manjinder Singh, a resident of Tarn-Taran in Amritsar, alleged that he paid Rs 43 lakh for a transplant but was left devastated.

“I have lost everything… I see no reason to live,” he says, underscoring the human cost of the racket.

After finding evidence that kidneys were procured from vulnerable individuals, including a Nepalese national, for Rs 9–10 lakh, a team has also been sent to Nepal to identify donors and intermediaries, police said According to the police, the racket extends to hospitals in Delhi, Lucknow and Gaziabad, with preliminary findings suggesting the involvement of unqualified personnel, including technicians and OT assistants, in the transplantation procedures.

The police are searching for the absconding accused, including Rohit and Afzal, across Delhi-NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, they said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) SM Qasim Abidi said the donor–recipient deals were arranged through platforms such as Telegram, where vulnerable individuals were lured with money.

Following the revelations, Medlife Hospital, allegedly run by multiple partners, has been shut, with authorities examining the involvement of other private hospitals where patients were shifted after surgeries, police said.

“The network appears extensive and organised. We are analysing digital evidence and financial trails to identify all involved,” Lal said.

On March 30, the police had busted a kidney transplant racket in Kanpur with the arrest of six persons, including five doctors.

The arrests followed raids conducted on March 30 at Med-Life Hospital, Ahuja Hospital, and Priya Hospital in the Kalyanpur area, by a joint team of police and health department officials led by Chief Medical Officer Haridutt Nemi.

Ahuja Hospital owners Dr Preeti Ahuja, 50, her husband Dr Surjeet Singh Ahuja, 54, and medical practitioners Rajesh Kumar, 44, Ram Prakash, 40, and Narendra Singh were arrested for facilitating unlawful organ transplants, the commissioner said.

Police have also arrested the alleged mastermind, Shivam Agarwal, 32, who reportedly impersonated a doctor.

Later, OT technicians Kuldeep Singh Raghav and Rajesh Kumar, who were also part of the transplant procedure, were arrested by the police.

The racket came to light when a donor, Ayush, an MBA student originally hailing from Bihar, approached the police over a payment dispute. He complained that he received only Rs 3.5 lakh out of the agreed amount of Rs 10 lakh for his kidney.

The tip-off triggered immediate raids and arrests. PTI COR ABN SHS