Illegal kidney transplants for Rs 1 crore: Kanpur cops expand probe to dozen hospitals in 4 more districts

According to police, the hospitals under scrutiny are those where the illegal kidney transplant procedures were allegedly carried out or the ones the accused are associated with.

On Monday, police obtained permission from a court to record the statements of the accused who are lodged in jail, DCP Abidi added. Police are also planning to seek custody of the alleged middleman, Shivam Agarwal, 32 (ambulance operator), for detailed questioning.

“We believe Shivam might have crucial information about the functioning of the racket and the involvement of other suspects,” another police officer said.

They are currently tracking seven people whose names surfaced during the investigation, with plans to question them in detail to ascertain their links to the racket, Abidi added.

Police are also verifying claims that an operations manager at a hospital — who is among those being sought for questioning — allegedly performed a procedure while posing as a doctor.

This was disclosed by two of the arrested accused, a police officer said.

The alleged racket came to light after police received inputs about illegal transplants. Acting on the information, a joint team of police and health department conducted raids at three medical facilities in Kanpur’s Kalyanpur-Rawatpur area on March 29 and 30, and arrested five doctors — Dr Surjeet Singh Ahuja (54), his wife Dr Preeti Ahuja (50), Dr Rajesh Kumar (44), Dr Ram Prakash (40) and Dr Narendra Singh (35) — and Shivam Agrawal.

Later, two operation theatre technicians, Rajesh Kumar and Kuldeep Singh, were arrested from Ghaziabad.

According to police, Shivam likely sourced and brought potential donors to the doctors.

The investigators claimed that the hospital run by the doctor couple —Surjeet Ahuja and Preeti Ahuja — was used as a hub for carrying out illegal kidney transplant procedures. Evidence collected so far indicates that seven to eight illegal transplants may have been conducted at the facility, they claimed.

Efforts are on to arrest four Meerut-based doctors who are also suspected to be a part of the racket, police said, adding that a team of doctors used to travel to Kanpur to perform the transplant surgeries.

Their coordination and communication was carried out through encrypted messaging platforms, they said.

The investigators believe that kidneys were often sourced from individuals in financial distress for Rs 5-6 lakh, and then sold to recipients for amounts ranging from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore.