Kidney transplant racket: The curious case of Dr Sam and PGI

An initial inquiry by PGI, which also traced a bank account number, provided by Dr Sam to the complainant to deposit the first installment of Rs 1 lakh of the total cost, to a State Bank of India branch in the North-East, found the complainant to be genuine. PGI chief security officer P C Sharma then forwarded the communication with a detailed complaint to Chandigarh police and a probe is being conducted by the cybercrime cell.

The complainant informed the PGI authorities by email that Dr Sam contacted victims on phone and preferred to communicate further through email. Sources at PGI said, “The email landed on the official email ID of the PGI director and when the antecedents of the mail sender were verified, he was a genuine person, whose relative seriously needed kidney for a transplant surgery. The bank account, which was also provided by the complainant and verified through the SBI branch at PGI, was traced to an address in a North-Eastern state.”

When contacted, Sharma, said, “The mail communication has been forwarded to Chandigarh police for all necessary legal action. There is no Dr Sam in our institute.” A senior police officer said, “The initial probe suggests that Dr Sam, which might be a fictitious identity, is from Puducherry and a communication is being sent to Puducherry police for assisting in the investigation.” Inspector HS Sekhon, in-charge of cyber cell, said, “We are trying to access the IP address of emails, which were sent to the victim by Dr Sam. The complaint forwarded by the PGI authorities is being investigated thoroughly.”