Delhi links in global kidney racket

A few well-known hospitals and diagnostic centres in Delhi may have had links with the Gurgaon kidney transplant racket busted last week, police officers involved in the investigation said on Monday.

The revelation indicated a wider network than previously thought. And it came at a time when the role of the Gurgaon Police itself is under the scanner.

In what could be a major embarrassment for the Gurgaon Police, Hindustan Times has found out that the Sector 23 house, where the illegal transplants were carried out, had been sealed by the Delhi Police in December 2000. It was not immediately known how, and with whose help, mastermind Dr Amit Kumar broke the seal.

The Delhi Police had followed leads in a similar case to the same three-storey house. That case was also registered against Dr Kumar at Hazrat Nizamuddin police station.

“We had sealed the house eight years ago as it was being used as a clinic for organ transplants. The local police had been informed. No one knows how the seal was broken and the illegal operations started again,” a senior Delhi Police officer said.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal said he was not aware of the sealing. “We have asked them to provide details,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Moradabad Police said the interrogation of six accused, who worked for Dr Kumar, has thrown up the names of some Delhi hospitals and diagnostic centres. “The gang used to take the patients to some top diagnostic labs and hospitals in Delhi,” said SSP Prem Prakash.

Lal said: “Some hospitals in Delhi and Gurgaon were used by the gang for recuperating their patients after kidney transplant.”

The police did not rule out the possibility that patients were admitted to these hospitals under fake names and addresses. They said they might question these hospitals and check their records.