Delhi Police files chargesheet in kidney racket case

New Delhi, Sep 1: The Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet before a court here in connection with a kidney racket case that was busted at a private city hospital in June this year.

Metropolitan Magistrate Arvind Bansal fixed September 5 for deciding whether to take cognisance of the over 1000-page charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police against 17 accused in the illegal organ trading in the capital including the alleged kingpin, T Rajkumar Rao, personal assistants of senior doctors at Apollo Hospital, donors and some recipients.

The police had arrested 13 accused by the end of July, while four others had surrendered before a court last month.

Besides Rao, those who have been chargesheeted include his mentor Deepak Kar, personal staff of doctors in Apollo hospital Brajesh Chauhan, Aditya Singh and Shailesh Saxena, agents Satya Prakash and Devashish Moulik, four donors - Umesh Srivastava, Neelu Srivastava, Bhanu Pratap and Maumita Moulik, organ recipients Ashutosh Gautam, his father and three others and one Aseem Sikdar.

They have been chargesheeted under various provisions of the IPC and the Transplantation of Human Organs Act.

Earlier, the court had denied bail to Ashutosh, son of a DJB official, observing that the process of transplantation prima facie appeared to be a "pre-planned criminal conspiracy" and a huge some of money to the tune of Rs 24 lakh was said to have exchanged hands during the process.

"It is observed that people understand and know that human organs are not commodities of trade. The legal and ethical principles associated with organ donation and transplantation must be strictly followed," it had said.

The police had claimed that some personal staff of doctors at the hospital were running a kidney racket and bringing donors from different parts of the country to Delhi. Some touts used to lure financially poor people from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and other states for donating kidney in return of Rs 3-4 lakh, it was alleged.

PTI