Police say organ scam gang boss arrested
Print Edition
POLICE in India say they have arrested the suspected leader of an illegal organ donation racket run out of one of the country’s top hospitals.
T Rajkumar Rao is being held in Kolkata on suspicion of leading a criminal gang that lured poor people to sell their kidneys, which were sold on for huge profits.
The commercial trade of organs is illegal in India and the gang forged documents to pretend the donors were relatives of transplant patients in order to undergo the operations at the Apollo hospital.
An officer in Kolkata said Rao was wanted in a number of such cases across several South Asian countries.
Police also arrested three donors including a couple who sold their kidneys for a combined 700,000 rupees (US$10,500) to pay off a loan they took out to cover their son’s medical treatment.
Five staff at the Apollo hospital are also under arrest.
Apollo has denied any role in the scam, saying it had been a “victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital.”
It said it had set up an independent inquiry committee to advise on safeguards.
Millions of Indians suffer from kidney disease, mostly because of high rates of diabetes. But a chronic shortage of organs has fueled a black market.
Just 3,000 organs are donated annually against a demand for more than 500,000.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
