The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : How the first ever kidney racket in State was busted

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Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

How the first ever kidney racket in State was busted

K.V. Subramanya

What police assumed was a routine complaint opened a can of worms over a decade ago

Four Bangalore doctors were reportedly involved in the kidney trade
Several people from West Asia underwent kidney transplant in Bangalore

BANGALORE: When construction worker Velu (40) of Tamil Nadu walked into the Commercial Street police station in January 1995 to lodge a complaint, the then Inspector Victor S. D’Souza thought that it could be like any other scores of routine complaints he receives every day. But little did Mr. D’Souza know that he would be busting the biggest and the first ever racket in the illegal removal and transplant of kidneys in Karnataka.

Arrest

In his complaint, Mr. Velu had said that one of his kidneys had been removed without his knowledge when he had been to a private hospital to donate blood. Basing on his complaint, the police had arrested M.S. Siddaraju, then a nephrologist at Victoria Hospital, who had allegedly operated upon Velu.

“After the newspapers carried reports on Dr. Siddaraju’s arrest and the illegal kidney trade, scores of people thronged the Commercial Street police station and complained that they too had lost their kidneys in a similar manner,” recollected Mr. D’Souza, who is now Superintendent of Police in State Intelligence.

Poor labourers

Mr. D’Souza told The Hindu on Monday that the investigations had revealed that four Bangalore doctors were involved in the kidney trade and the transplantations were made at a private hospital. Though most of the victims were poor labourers from Tamil Nadu, there were also a few from Karnataka, he said.

Basing on the complaints of the victims, seven cases were registered in the Commercial Street police station and as many charge sheets filed in the XI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court against Dr. Siddaraju, three others doctors from private hospitals, Dileep Patil, Adil and Dhanpal, and some touts who were involved in the racket, he said.

The cases were subsequently transferred to the Sessions Court for committal of trial and the proceedings have been stayed by the High Court following an appeal by some of the accused, he said.

In the seven cases, the complainants had also mentioned the names of their relatives whose kidneys too had been reportedly removed, Mr. D’Souza said.

West Asian patients

According to sources in the State Police, several renal patients from the Gulf nations, who had come here on tourist visa, were said to have undergone kidney transplant at Bangalore hospitals prior to 1995.

In 1994, the Consulate of Saudi Arabia had reportedly communicated to the Bangalore police that some of its nationals who had undergone kidney transplant here had died after returning to their country. The Consulate had mentioned the name of a doctor who had been transplanting the organs and requested the police to investigate into his activities, the sources said.

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