Hyderabad, Jan 24 The Telangana government has decided to entrust to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) the investigation into a kidney racket that was busted three days ago at a private hospital in Saroornagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha on Friday issued orders handing over the case to the CID.
Rachakonda police have reportedly arrested eight accused in the racket that was uncovered at Alakananda Hospital in Saroornagar in Rangareddy district on January 21. Special teams constituted by Rachakonda police were already looking for accused in various states.
Health authorities and police raided the hospital on January 21 and sealed it after a tip-off. The hospital was found to be functioning without authorisation. During the raid, the officials found four individuals at the hospital, two kidney donors and two recipients, all from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They were shifted to government-run Gandhi Hospital for treatment.
A preliminary investigation by the authorities revealed that doctors, who were brought from other states, conducted surgeries on January 16. Both the donors and the recipients were allegedly connected through agents, operating in various states.
The racket reportedly involved doctors from other states, including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, who were lured with financial incentives to perform illegal kidney transplants in collaboration with the hospital staff.
Two donors were reportedly paid Rs 4 lakh each for their kidneys, while Rs 50 lakh was collected from each recipient.
Preliminary findings reveal that the recipients hailed from Karnataka, while the donors were from Tamil Nadu. The Health Department has already constituted a committee to investigate. The committee comprising Dr Nagender, former Superintendent of Osmania General Hospital; Dr Sadhana, an anaesthetist; Dr Mallikarjun, a urologist; and Dr Kiranmayi, a nephrologist visited the seized hospital and gathered information from the Rangareddy District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) Venkateshwar Rao.
After the committee presented preliminary report, the Health Minister decided to handover the case to the CID.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor