NEW DELHI: Police officials investigating a kidney transplant racket they busted in the eastern Indian city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, have uncovered a trail which leads to at least two other South Indian States. Investigators have come across evidence and leads that raise suspicion of the involvement of a number of doctors, brokers and insurance agents in the two neighboring States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. All the three states share a common border with each other. The racket was busted when police arrested a man and his accomplice, who was involved in inducing poor people to donate their kidneys for a price and then selling the organs to needy patients for a huge premium. According to officials familiar with the investigation, some medical professionals and agents of a health insurance company in Nellore, a well known healthcare hub close to Chennai in South India are suspected to be connected to the racket in Hyderabad. Investigators have also come to the conclusion, based on evidence and leads gathered that a number of Hyderabad doctors working in government as well as private hospitals in Hyderabad are also linked at different stages to the racket. A top Hyderabad nephrologist, one Dr Ramesh Chadha, is already on the investigators' radar and his name is included in the First Information Report (FIR) booked by the Hyderabad police in connection with the case. Two of his assistants are on the run, and police say their arrest is crucial to gather evidence and nail the doctor. The Hyderabad police have already arrested one Rajendra Prasad, who is involved as a broker to find donors as well as recipients for the kidney transplants. Prasad was an insurance agent in Bangalore for over two decades, and has revealed to those interrogating him that he moved to Hyderabad to carry on his activities in kidney transplants because the doctor through whom he used to operate in Vellore was nabbed recently. Prasad was reportedly put in contact with the Hyderabad doctor by a lady doctor from Bangalore. Investigators are trying to gather call records of the phones belonging to Prasad, the Bangalore lady doctor and the nephrologist from Hyderabad. Meanwhile, a crack team of the Hyderabad police is expected to proceed to Nellore to verify the leads provided by Prasad. Prasad, according to a top police official, is said to have claimed that he facilitated at least 20 transplants in Vellore and through a huge network he had mobilized of patients and donors. Prasad told the police that he used to pocket 1,00,000 rupees each from the recipient patient as well as the donor besides charging 10 per-cent of the fees charged by the hospital and the doctor.
