Delhi kidney racket case: Three donors held

New Delhi: Delhi Police has arrested three kidney donors, including two women, in its ongoing probe into organ trafficking at Indraprastha Apollo hospital here, said officials on Tuesday.

"We have arrested two women kidney donors from Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and one person from Siliguri (West Bengal)," Deputy Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Randhawa told IANS.

The police busted the kidney racket on June 2 with the arrest of two Indraprastha Apollo hospital employees and three touts on the charge of persuading economically needy people to sell their kidneys.

A case was then registered at Sarita Vihar police station here.

The police had said that Shailesh Saxena, 31, and Aditya Singh, 24, who work as personal secretaries to two Apollo hospital doctors, were held for organising kidney trade.

The three arrested touts are Aseem Sikdar, 37, Satya Prakash, 30, and Devashish Moulik, 30.

Investigators said that the members of the gang persuaded economically needy people from various parts of the country to donate their kidney in exchange for money.

"They also prepared forged papers including the identity proofs to establish the relationship between the donors and the recipients."

The recipients were charged large sums while the donors were fobbed off with paltry amounts.

People falling prey to the gang come from various parts of the country like West Bengal, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Police sources said the hospital staff used to inform Sikdar, the mastermind of the racket, about the need for a kidney.

"Sikdar would then arrange the donors with the help of his associates Prakash and Moulik," the sources said.

The police have so far questioned several doctors and staff members of Apollo hospital regarding the case.