Bhanu Pratap Singh, an accused in Delhi's Kidney Racket traded his kidney for Rs 4.5 lakhs
Notorious Rajkumar Rao accused in Delhi's kidney racket told Bhanu Pratap Singh (43), "Jaan bachana toh punya ka kaam hai, (saving a life is a noble deed.) After much mulling, Bhanu agreed. He agreed to sell his kidney for a sum of Rs 4.5 lakhs earlier this year.
42-year-old Mamta Desai from Maharashtra was desperate for a kidney. A match was found in Bhanu. Dna spoke to Bhanu, who is one of the seventeen accused on the charge sheet by the Delhi Police in the kidney racket unearthed in the private-run Apollo Hospital at Sarita Vihar.
"The kidney transplant was slated in May. I was brought to Apollo Hospital a month before that by Ashu. He is also a tout. After arriving in Delhi, I was taken to Apollo Hospital up to five times," Bhanu told dna.
When asked, what drove Bhanu towards selling off a kidney, he said, "I was reeling under heavy loan. My business had run into losses."
In 2010, Bhanu had set up a snack factory in Kanpur. "Since over a year and a half my debts had mounted. I sold my kidney to pay off my debts. After the business incurred consistent losses, I asked Ashu to land me a job in another factory, he instead suggested me to sell my kidney off and make a whirlwind amount in one go."
Bhanu's family owns three bighas of land that produce a tonne of grain every year. "The grain is mostly consumed at home through the year. For any other expense now, we have to take loans by mortgaging our property," he said.
The touts fabricated identity documents like Voters'ID, Aadhar card amongst others to show that Bhanu was Piyush Kumar Daulat Ray Mehta, a make believe brother-in-law of the recipient patient Mamta Desai. Explaining the modus operandi of the touts, he said, "The touts never flocked inside or around the hospital. They made me meet Mamta and her family members outside the hospital."
Bhanu time and again refers to Mamta and her family as 'party.' "The party took me to meet Dr Jayant Kumar Hota at Apollo Hospital, after the documentation was in place. Dr Hota asked me if I'd like to give the kidney. I said yes and that was the end of the matter."
Before any transplant, an in-house Authorisation Committee appointed by the hospital, convenes to review the veracity of the documents submitted by the donor and the recipient. The Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) mandates that organs cannot be sold or bought. "Our interview with the Authorisation Committee lasted for not more than two minutes. No questions were asked. The papers were glanced at and an approval was given in a jiffy," said Bhanu.
A hasty decision to pay off his loans by selling his kidney, is the one Bhanu regrets now. "My abdomen pains at times. I kept complaining of pain for two weeks after the surgery. They kept pumping pain-killers inside my body.
Merely twenty days after the transplant, I was picked up by the police for conniving and then languished in jail for over two months after the arrests were made. I met fellow donors and recipients in jail, when the matter blew up during police investigations," he said.
When contacted, Dr Jayant Kumar Hota, Nephrologist with Apollo Hospital, refused to comment. "I do not have much idea about these cases," said he and arbitrarily cut the phone.
Any attempts to contact Dr Ashok Sarin, Nephrologist with Apollo Hospital were in vain. He did not reply to phone calls or text messages. Dr. Sarin's personal assistants Aditya Singh and Shailesh Saxena are named in the charge sheet and accused of having contacts with the touts in the kidney racket as well.
This is how the racket unfolded...
One of the donors hailing from New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, Moumita Moulik, decided to elope with Asim Sikdar, a tout accused in the scam. On being unable to find his wife, Moumita's husband Debashish lodged a 'missing complaint' with Delhi police. Later, Delhi police rounded up all donors holed up in Paharganj and traced their way up to the touts in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and New Delhi.
(Tomorrow in the series, Kerala priest's efforts of matching donors if emulated by many, may well put an end to money-for-kidney rackets)
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