Visakhapatnam: Police busts kidney racket, two arrested

Visakhapatnam: A kidney racket was busted in the city on Thursday with the arrest of two persons who were allegedly involved in illegal organ transplantation.

According to Vizag police commissioner Mahesh Chandra Ladda, the scam took place at Sraddha Hospital, Maharanipeta in July 2018.

Thambulla Pardhasaradhi, 32, from Kukapally in Hyderabad was in dire need of money and decided to sell his kidney. During the same time, Dr M. Manjunath, 34, from Yelahanka in Bengaluru allegedly contacted Dr Doddhi Prabhakar, 35, nephrologist from Sraddha Hospital, in search of a kidney for one of his patients.

The donor came in contact with Dr Manjunath and the patient. A deal was allegedly struck for Rs 12 lakh. Dr Prabhakar agreed to do the transplant and took Rs 11 lakh for himself and Rs 12 lakh for the hospital for introducing the donor as a relative of the patient.

The donor was wrongly shown as the brother of the patient. The accused allegdly morphed the Aadhaar card to that effect.

The police commissioner said that the department will be informing the Medical Council of India about this case, and all the transplants done at this hospital will be scrutinised in the wake of this racket. The accused persons have admitted to the illegal transplant. Both of them were arrested by the police.