Cops bust ‘fingerprint surgery’ racket that helped job aspirants get Kuwait visas

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda Special Operations Team (SOT) detained four persons for carrying out illegal fingerprint surgeries to smuggle job aspirants to Kuwait.

In a joint operation, the Ghatkesar police and the Malkajgiri SOT apprehended Bovilla Shiva Shankar Reddy, Sagabala Venkat Ramana, Gajjalakondugari Naga Muneswar Reddy and Rendla Rama Krishna Reddy. Rama Krishna Reddy, 38, and Shiva Shankar Reddy, 25, are Kuwait returnees.

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat claimed that the group from Hyderabad was sending job hopefuls abroad after operating on their fingertips to produce new fingerprints based on which new identity documents were created. He said it came to light during an examination that the Kuwait immigration department outdated technology. By taking advantage of this, the individuals were cheating it by undergoing the fingertip surgery and getting new identity papers.

Muneswar Reddy, the main suspect, is a 36-year-old radiologist and X-ray technician at Krishna Diagnostics in Chandragiri. He collaborated with Venkat Ramana, a 39-year-old anesthesia technician at DBR Hospital in Tirupati, and they performed surgeries on people who had returned from Kuwait with the intention of sending them back with forged identification.

Acting on a tip-off, the police conducted a raid on a hotel on Thursday at Annojiguda near Ghatkesar, where they arrested the four men and seized evidence from their possession.

According to the police, they had performed surgeries in Rajasthan and Kerala, charging Rs 25,000 for each one. “So far, the accused have sent three individuals to Kuwait after conducting fingerprint surgeries. We are trying to establish their contacts in Rajasthan and Kerala,” the police officer stated. The accused were found to be in possession of surgical paraphernalia,” Bhagwat stated.

Explaining the modus operandi, he said, "They cut the upper layer of the fingertip and extract some part of the tissue to re-stitch it, using their medical knowledge. The wound heals with a slight change in fingerprint pattern..”

 

What’s fingerprint surgery?

The accused carried out fingerprint surgeries to smuggle candidates to Kuwait for jobs.

Accused sliced the fingertip's upper layer, cut away some tissue, and then restitched it.

The wound would heal and marginally alter fingerprint patterns

Job aspirants will use altered fingerprints to generate new ID papers