B’lore cops bust kidney racket

BANGALORE: Bangalore police on Monday claimed to have busted an organ racket with the arrest of three members of a gang which allegedly sold over 25 kidneys.

The gang of 13 is suspected to have spread its tentacles to as far as Pune. The police on Sunday arrested Mohan Kumar alias Shastri, 29, his brother Ravichandra, 26, and Mahadeva, 25, who were trying to dupe five farmers and two labourers into donating their kidneys. But kingpin Hotte Nagaraj managed to escape, the police said.

“We are yet to confirm whether they ran the racket only in Karnataka or across India," said S Srinivas, superintendent of police, Bangalore (rural).

After selling the kidneys, the criminals paid the donors around Rs 85,000 saying the remaining money was spent on the operation. “They neatly pocketed Rs3 lakh per kidney,” sub-inspector R Virupaksha said. 

The police suspect that the racket has some base in Pune. “One of the arrested confessed that he was supposed to sell a kidney to someone in Pune. We are investigating the connection," Virupakshi said.

Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy has directed the police to initiate stringent action against those involved in the racket. “We will not spare the guilty,” he said.