Man battling with kidney failure duped of ₹6.8L on pretext of getting transplant

A 40-year-old man battling with kidney failure was allegedly duped of ₹6.8 lakh on the pretext of getting a transplant, said the police on Friday.

The police said the victim — Raj Shourey (40), a resident of Sector 58 — works at a managerial position with an IT firm. He was diagnosed with kidney ailment in 2017, and has been undergoing dialysis on every alternate day since 2019.

According to Shourey, he had come in contact with the suspect in November 2019, who, since then, kept offering him treatment packages at different hospitals across the country for transplant. Shourey said he had got himself registered at a hospital in Chennai for a transplant earlier, where the expected waiting time was of two years.

“I suspected that the man was trying to dupe me. However, in March last year, he got me in touch with the owner of a private hospital in Tiruchirappalli, who assured me that they would soon arrange kidneys for me. This made me trust the suspect,” said Shourey while waiting for dialysis at a hospital.

According to Shourey, the suspect and the hospital owner allegedly demanded ₹12 lakh for his entire treatment, including transplant. He also alleged that the owner had assured him that he was on top of the recipient’s list in the hospital as his blood group was A+ and there was no other patient of the same group in need of a kidney transplant.

“The tout and the hospital owner got my case transferred to Tiruchirappalli. I paid ₹6.8 lakh out of the total expected expenditure of ₹12 lakh to the suspect in multiple transactions, but even then, he kept demanding more money as advance. They gave a deadline of March 2021 for the transplant, but it didn’t take place,” he said.

Shourey said that finally in June 2021, he asked the owner and the suspect for a date and denied paying them more money. He said the suspect had given him a cheque of ₹4.3 lakh to repay, but it was also dishonoured. “The biggest setback was that the owner has not given me a no objection certificate (NOC) to re-register myself at a Chennai hospital. Had I waited there, the transplant would have been done by now. A patient can’t register himself at two hospitals in Tamil Nadu at the same time,” he added.

Shourey said that the reason for getting registered for a transplant in Chennai was that he heard that there was more awareness about organ donation there. “Now, I have registered myself at a Gurugram hospital, but chances of getting a transplant soon are remote. Precious time elapsed due to case transfer, and I also got duped,” he said, adding it costs him around ₹6.5 lakh annually for his treatment.

“I had somehow arranged the money to pay for the transplant. I am the sole breadwinner in my family, having elderly parents, wife, and a minor daughter,” he said, adding that he met Gurugram commissioner of police Kala Ramchandran recently, after which an FIR was registered in the matter.

A case has been registered against the suspect under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) at the Sector 65 police station on Thursday night, said the police.

Inspector Deepak Kumar, station house officer (SHO) of Sector 65 police station, said an investigation is underway. “Necessary action will be taken at the earliest,” he said.