16 July,2016 08:36 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Police have found that its members had contacts in seven to eight well-known city hospitals and many doctors were in cahoots with them
Vijendra Bisen, the alleged gang leader
The Powai police have found that the gang allegedly running a kidney transplant racket at Hiranandani Hospital was involved in at least 35 kidney transplants in the past five years across the country.
Vijendra Bisen, the alleged gang leader
They said the mastermind, Vijendra Bisen, and his gang have contacts in seven to eight well-known city hospitals. The gang was hand in glove with doctors at many of these hospitals. Powai police sources said those arrested - Bisen, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, Iqbal Sheikh and Kisan Brijkishor Jaiswal - were produced before the Andheri court yesterday and sent to police custody till July 19.
Targeted the unlettered
Police said the gang charged upwards of R20 lakh for a kidney transplant. For the supply of kidneys, they targeted uneducated people from rural or tribal areas. After bringing them to Mumbai, they arranged for documents to show that they were related to the patients and then the transplants took place, the police said.
The gang allegedly took doctors of the hospital into confidence before the transplants. After successful operations, the doctors were paid handsomely, the police said. Investigations revealed that out of the 35 recipients, three are from Mumbai.
The person who helped the NGO (whose social worker tipped off the police) expose the gang lives in Malabar Hill. As the news of the arrests went up on news channels, the whistleblower received threat calls late on Thursday, asking him to take back his complaint. Following the threats, the man registered a complaint with the Malabar Hill police.
The police said the gang has also cheated many people who sold their kidneys. Most 'donors' did not get their promised amounts, and the whistleblower is one of them. The police said he even worked with Bisen's gang, and after he was cheated for his kidney, he approached the NGO.
Docs may be questioned
"Government officials who helped make the forged documents, and doctors of the hospitals in Mumbai who helped them with the kidney transplants are under the scanner. We will question them and if required they will be made accused in the case," a police official said.
The incident
On Thursday, the Powai police foiled an attempt to transplant a kidney using forged paperwork at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, where a man, Brijkishor Jaiswal, allegedly tried to pass off a woman, Rekha, as his wife, and have her kidney transplanted into him. The fraud came to light when a Powai-based social worker, Mahesh Tanna, called up the Mumbai Police helpline and said he had information on a kidney transplant of suspicious nature scheduled at Hiranandani Hospital on Thursday.
