Missing pieces of kidney puzzle fitting in:

Big wigs behind ruthless racket to be exposed

By Manjula Fernando

In the wake of a major internet based human kidney racket involving doctors in private medical institutions in Sri Lanka and donors from India, Health Minister Maithreepala Sirisena called for a comprehensive report from Private Hospitals and Development Director Dr. Mrs. Kanthi Ariyaratne last week.

The Sri Lankan police and the Health Ministry has offered help to investigate the racket of which the lid was blown off recently when one of the potential donors from India died suddenly after being transferred from a private hospital in Colombo to the National Hospital.

The report, after a thorough check on kidney transplants performed in private hospitals between January 2013 to April 2014, is to be handed over to the Minister in a month's time.

"We are awaiting further instructions from India on this investigation," Indian High Commission Spokesperson Esha Srivastava said when asked if the Indian investigators team have already arrived here or if they will work with the Sri Lankan counterparts to apprehends the suspect doctor or doctors. They have been warned about the racket by the Hyderabad police.

The India media first reported the incident on April 18 after the police reported that a 26 year old, a potential donor died in Colombo due to a suspected heart attack before selling his organ for money. On April 22 three suspects who had supplied donors from India were arrested by the Central Crime Station (CCS) police.

Lucrative business

The Indian media reported countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore had lax laws and hence trading human organs for rich, ailing patients was a thriving and a lucrative business.

In India, laws prohibit receiving organs from anyone other than a blood relative thus the trade is not as easy as in other south Asian countries.

However, the human organ trade is a huge business is India and a rich patient can ship his donor to another country to perform the operation on foreign soil, besides it is unclear as to how far the Indian hospital officials would go to ascertain the veracity of the claims of donor's kinship.The Times Of India reported quoting the Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma that the arrested Indian agents as N Venkatesham, 38, from Chityal in Nalgonda district, D Shanmukha Pavan Srinivas, 25, an MBA student from BN Reddy Nagar in Vanasthalipuram, and Govind Suryanarayana alias Surya alias Suresh, 29, from Vijayawada.

Sixteen donors

Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai Subarullah Khan said as per his knowledge the Lankan mission in Delhi had not been approached by the Indian authorities so far for help in the investigations.The arrested agents had sold their kidneys in the past for money and then become agents who track down Indian donors who are ready to trade their kidneys.

Sirinivas had sent 16 donors and Venkatesham six donors to Sri Lanka and altogether 21 kidneys have been sold during the past few months.

According to their statements the doctors in Sri Lanka were collecting Rs. 40 to 50 lakhs while a donor stand to receive around 500,000 and the Agent an amount between Rs.50,000 to Rs.1.5 lakhs.

The police were tipped off about the inhuman racket when a brother of the dead donor Ganesh made a complaint to the police on suspicion of his brothers sudden demise in Colombo.

Via internet

Ganesh told Police his brother left home saying he was going to Visakhapatnam looking for a job and six days later called to say he was in Colombo.

The agents would hunt for donors via internet and when a potential victim was found they would allegedly alert the doctors in Sri Lanka.

Once they get the green light from doctors, based on initial information, some preliminary tests would be carried out in India by the agents to determine if the donor is a match for the patients listed with them. Then the arrangements will be made to transfer them to Sri Lanka.

Dead on admission

The 26 year old diseased, known as Dinesh alias Dillip Kumar Maaru was sent to Colombo on March 23 by Venkatesham along with two others, Kiran Kumar and Aram Zargar.

Dinesh and Aram had visited the beach on March 28, the day before Kiran's kidney was to be surgically removed allegedly at Navaloka hospital. They had consumed liquor and had a dip in the sea. Then they visited the hospital. Suddenly Dinesh had started to throw up and was rushed to the Colombo National Hospital by Aram. He was pronounced dead on admission.

Later arrangements were made for his body to be flown to his relatives with the intervention of the External Affairs Ministry and the Indian High commission.

Kiran had told media that despite being promised Rs.5 lakhs, he was paid Rs.3.9 lakhs by the doctors in Sri Lanka for his kidney. Dinesh was reportedly offered 15 lakhs for his kidney which was revealed when his brother logged into his email account after Dinesh died.

The Indian CCS investigators who are probing the case claim the kidney surgeries under this racket were being performed at Western Hospital, Navaloka hospital, Hemas Hospital and Lanka hospitals.Reportedly, looking for some quick bucks to overcome his financial woes, Dinesh had searched the web for an online agent to sell his kidney. He was a victim of only one of many such underworld rings thriving on selling live human organs, that operate in India.

The report by Dr.Ariyaratne will be handed over to Minister Maithreepala Sirisena in one month and hopefully it will have the missing pieces of the puzzle to apprehend the big wigs behind this ruthless racket.

Pix courtesy by The Hindu, Adaderana