Delhi cops hunt for kidney racket middleman in Hyderabad

The Delhi Police team is carrying out raids in Hyderabad for a middleman who used to scout for needy families looking for kidney donors.

The Crime Branch had arrested four persons, including a woman, for their alleged involvement in the illegal sale and purchase of kidneys.

A team is currently in Hyderabad looking for one person who goes by the name of Venky, sources said.

He works at a pharmacy in Hyderabad and would find out about patients looking for kidney donors and would guide them to his accomplices in Delhi.

The inter-state racket was busted last week after an MBA student, along with a news channel reporter, contacted the Crime Branch officials in April.

The student had posed as a donor to dig deep into the racket and through spy devices provided to him by the Crime Branch recorded the entire process from his meetings with the middlemen, to his screening process at the hospital.

The four accused -- Jayant Sahoo, Sulekha Panda, Anoj Patra and Birju Paswan -- are currently in police custody and are being interrogated.

It has been found that they have their own 'persons' working at chemist shops in hospitals and diagnostic centres in Delhi and some other cities, said a senior police officer.

Venky is one of them. He is currently absconding after learning about the arrest of his accomplices.

He would target those patients who purchased medicines for kidney ailments.

After finding out that they were looking for donors, they would put them in touch with the middlemen who would gauge their financial capacity and then make them meet potential donors.

The student was given a separate identity with fake ID cards so that he could pass off as a member of the family of the recipient.

The middlemen targeted helpless families who were looking for kidney donors.

They were induced and charged huge amounts of money with the promise to complete necessary documentation and formalities for the smooth transplant operations.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)