Kidney racket: Doctor among six arrested in Vizag, special teams formed to trace two more accused

VISAKHAPATNAM: Intensifying its probe into the kidney racket, Vizag city police arrested six persons, including a doctor and a few middlemen and others. The police have formed special teams to trace and nab two more doctors who had performed the illegal kidney transplantations.
The arrested accused were identified as B Elena, Madaka Kamaraju, Marra Srinu, Marra Kondamma and Sekhar (all are middlemen), and Dr Parameswara Rao of Sri Thirumala Hospital.
Commissioner of Police, CM Thrivikram Varma said that the illegal kidney surgeries were conducted at Sri Thirumala Hospital, Pendurthi in Vizag city. The surgeries were performed on G Vinay Kumar and Vasupalli Srinivasa Rao. Two doctors have placed a key role in it with Narla Venkateswara Rao (Venkatesh), who was earlier imprisoned in a kidney racket in Vizag city, being the kingpin of the organ trade.
The preliminary investigation has revealed the middlemen have targeted the families which faced financial problems.
Vinay Kumar (32), a resident of Vambaby colony in Vizag city was lured by the middlemen to sell one of his kidneys, promising that it could fetch him Rs8.5 lakh but he was paid only Rs2.5 lakh. One of the kidneys of Vinay was removed at Sri Thirumala hospital, Pendurthi in Vizag city on December 16. Subsequently, Vinay lodged a police complaint, which ultimately led to the uncovering of the racket. A few days after the scam, another victim Vasupalli Srinivasa Rao came forward and expressed that he was cheated by the same gang.
The investigation has revealed that Vinay Kumar, a driver by profession, introduced by residents of the same locality Marra Srinu, his wife Kondamma to one Elena and Kamaraju of the same locality. Vinay expressed to donate his Kidney for consideration for Rs8.5 lakh and he is not aware about the recipient of the organ.
The police said that Elena, Kamaraju, Srinu and Kondamma have introduced Vinay Kumar to one Venkatesh, who is the organizer and accused in a previous kidney racket that took place under MR Peta police station limits in Vizag city in 2019.
Venkatesh arranged clinical tests for Vinay Kumar through Sekhar who prepared records for clinical tests by using fake names of the doctors. Venkatesh has engaged Ramesh and Pavan to get the Hospital facility in Vizag city.
Ramesh and Pavan approached Dr Parameswara Rao of Sri Thirumala hospital between September and October 2022 and came to an understand to provide facility of hospital to conduct illegal kidney transplantation for which they paid ICU and operation theatre rental to Dr Parameswara Rao to acquire the Hospital facility for performing the operation.
Elena, Srinu and Kamaraju picked up Vinay Kumar from Railway New Colony in Vizag city and approached Venkatesh and took him to Sri Thirumala Hospital for transplantation and the Kidney transplantation process was performed in the third week of December 2022.
Elena and her team did not pay a total agreed amount of Rs8.5 lakh to Vinay Kumar and also not taken care of the health of Vinay Kumar after transplantation for which Vinay Kumar and his parents demanded Rs one lakh each from Kamaraju, Elena and Srinu for which they did not agree.
Venkatesh, a native of Kadapa was the kingpin in the organ trade. He had played a key role in procuring the donor in 2019 kidney racket in Vizag city. In the fresh racket, Venkatesh has arranged donors, recipients, clinical tests and hospital facilities for the illegal kidney transplants.
The police said that two doctors performed illegal kidney transplantations. The teams have rushed to various places in the state to trace the doctors and also Venkatesh. The police department has been looking into multiple angles to ascertain if more victims were targeted as part of the racket and whether they belonged to poor and weaker sections of society. EOM