Gurugram: In a joint operation Thursday, Haryana’s health department and the chief minister’s flying squad — a unit of the state police — busted a kidney-trafficking racket allegedly being operated by a Jharkhand resident out of a guest house Babil Palace in Sector 39 of Gurugram, Haryana.
The team found three specific cases of illegal organ sale by donors from Bangladesh for transplants. The Jharkhand resident, Mohammed Murtaza Ansari, acted as the middleman between donors and recipients, also from Bangladesh. The men were “treated” at the Fortis Hospital in Jaipur, according to the first information report (FIR) registered in the case.
The officers, working on a tip-off, found that donors and recipients of at least three transplants were kept in this place.
The FIR, at Gurugram’s Sadar Police Station against “Ansari and others”, include charges under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, and Section 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The complaint was filed by Dr Pawan Chaudhary, the Deputy Civil Surgeon of Gurugram.
Civil Surgeon Dr Virender Yadav told ThePrint that the raiding team was told by the owner of the guesthouse, Rohit Kumar, that “patients” brought by Ansari, were staying there.
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Upon their interrogation, it was found that the donors were three youths from Bangladesh who sold their kidneys to Ansari for Rs 2 lakh. The recipients told the team they had paid Rs 10 lakh for one organ.
The FIR states the donors were neither “emotionally attached” to the recipients nor blood relatives, but had merely given their kidneys for money. The complaint also said: “When donor and recipient were enquired about the no objection certificate or any permission from the authority as authorised under The Transplantation Of Human Organs And Tissues Act, 1994… Neither the donor nor the recipient could produce any such document. All the documents of treatment were taken at the spot (sic).”
One of the donors, 24-year-old Shamim Mehndi Hasan, told the police he came to know about the organ sale from an advertisement on Facebook. The contact person was Ansari, who offered him Rs 2 lakh and told him the transplant would take place in Jaipur. Hasan’s kidney was transplanted into one Islam Nurul, 66.
The FIR doesn’t mention the date on which the alleged transplant took place, but Shamim, a mobile repair shop owner, told the police he was brought to India nearly two months ago on a fake passport arranged by Ansari.
Kobir Ahasanul, 32, told the raiding team he had received a kidney from one Mr Mahndimazumdaar, according to the complaint, and paid Rs 10 lakh for it. Mahndimazumdaar left for Bangladesh after the operation, the team was told.
Hossain Mohd Azad, 30, donated a kidney to Mahmud Syed Akbar, 25, and got Rs 2 lakh from Ansari. Akbar paid the racketeer Rs 10 lakh.
Dr Yadav said all cases were in violation of Section 19 of the Transplantation Act.
The section provides for imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but can be extended to 10 years and a fine not less than Rs 20 lakh, but may go up to Rs 1 crore.