15 Members, Including Kingpin, Arrested; 34 Fake Stamps, Luxury Car, Forged Documents Seized
New Delhi: The Inter-State Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch has dismantled an extensive illegal kidney transplant racket operating across multiple states, including Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. A total of 15 members of this syndicate, including the alleged kingpin, were apprehended. The operation led to the recovery of 34 fake stamps, 17 mobile phones, 2 laptops, 9 SIM cards, a luxury car, Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, and a plethora of forged documents and patient files, the officials informed on Friday.
DCP Crime Branch Amit Goel stated that the investigation began when secret information about the racket was received by the Crime Branch. The syndicate was reportedly involved in illegal kidney transplants of Indian citizens, exploiting both donors and recipients. A breakthrough came when a woman filed a complaint against Sandeep and Vijay Kumar Kashyap, aka Sumit, alleging that they had defrauded her husband of Rs 35 lakh under the pretext of arranging a kidney transplant. Following this lead and aided by technical surveillance, a series of raids were conducted on June 26, 2024. This resulted in the arrest of Vijay Kashyap in Noida, where numerous fabricated documents and stamps were seized.
Further investigations led to the arrest of Sandeep Arya and Devender Jha at a five-star hotel in Goa. The interrogation revealed the sophisticated modus operandi of the accused, who had infiltrated reputable hospitals as transplant coordinators. They identified patients suffering from kidney diseases and arranged donors through social media, exploiting individuals from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. The syndicate fabricated documents to falsely show donors as close relatives of recipients, which is a mandatory provision for legal transplants. These documents allowed them to pass the scrutiny of various transplant authorization committees across multiple hospitals, Goel mentioned.
The investigation also uncovered that the racket had conducted illegal kidney transplants in 11 hospitals across different states. At their instance, five more associates were arrested: Punit Kumar, Md. Hanif Shaikh, Cheeka Prashanth, Tej Prakash, and Rohit Khanna. Legal actions have also been initiated against five patients who received illegal kidney transplants and two donors. So far, 34 cases of illegal transplants have been identified, with further investigations ongoing, DCP Goel confirmed.
The profiles of the key accused paint a picture of a well-organized and highly coordinated operation. Sandeep Arya, the alleged kingpin, has an MBA in public health and has worked in various hospitals, charging Rs 35–40 lakhs per transplant and pocketing Rs 7-8 lakhs per operation. His brother-in-law, Devender Jha, and associates like Vijay Kumar Kashyap and Punit Kumar played crucial roles in assisting and fabricating documents. Others, like Md. Hanif Shaikh and Cheeka Prashanth, were initially donors who later joined the syndicate, while Rohit Khanna facilitated donor procurement through social media, the official said.
The significant recoveries, including forged files, blank documents from various laboratories and hospitals, materials for making stamps, laptops with incriminating data, and a luxury car used to influence patients, underscore the scale and reach of the racket, the official added.
