Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, located in Jasola Vihar on the southern edge of Delhi, is one of the most renowned and oldest hospitals in the city. Every day, hundreds of patients from across the country and abroad visit the hospital for consultations or admissions.
To accommodate these visitors, numerous hotels, guest houses, and self-catering apartments of various budgets have been established around the hospital area. Rampal Palace is one of those hotels in the Jasola area, just five minutes away from Apollo Hospital.
On June 16 at 1am, a Delhi Police team raided the hotel. According to the hotel manager, the police headed straight to room number one, where two Bangladeshis had been staying for a month and a half.
That night, the police arrested them and seized all their belongings, including the documents the hotel had on record for their stay.
The hotel authorities were initially unaware of why the two were picked up by Delhi Police. Their passports and Indian visas were valid, and they seemed to be visiting Apollo for treatment, traveling there almost daily. The Rampal Palace Hotel staff did not suspect them at all.
The incident came to light on July 8, when Delhi Police announced they had uncovered an international kidney trafficking ring that extended from rural Bangladesh to Delhi.
RAB busts fraud kidney-selling gang in DhakaThey have so far arrested seven people, including three Bangladeshi and four Indian nationals, allegedly involved in this gang. The two Bangladeshis taken from the Rampal Palace Hotel were part of this ring.
Among those arrested was Dr Vijaya Kumari, a doctor from Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, who performed illegal kidney transplant operations for the racket.
Though she did not conduct these surgeries at Apollo, she used a hospital in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi for the illegal transplants. Dr Kumari was arrested by the police on July 1.
Details of the operation
Deputy Commissioner Amit Goyal of the Delhi Police Crime Branch detailed the operation, calling it "cold-blooded and brutal."
He said: “The ring's activities started at various dialysis centers in and around Dhaka. An agent named Ifti, who is yet to be arrested, would convince dialysis patients and their families that life would be much easier with a kidney transplant in India rather than enduring repeated dialysis sessions. The agent assured them that the ring would handle everything, from finding a donor to the operation, in exchange for payment.”
Once someone agreed, the responsibility of finding a donor fell on Russell (29), now detained by Delhi Police.
Russell targeted poor and able-bodied youths from rural Bangladesh, promising them substantial money and job opportunities in India in exchange for selling their kidneys. Having sold one of his kidneys years ago, Russell found it easy to convince others.
Delhi doctor held for Bangladesh-India kidney transplant racketRussell, along with his brother-in-law Mohammad Suman Mia (28) and Mohammad Rokan (26), handled bringing the patients and donors to Delhi and arranging their accommodation. They were aided by Ratish Pal, a young man from Tripura, who acted as a Hindi-to-Bengali translator for the patients and donors.
The gang found an accomplice in Dr Kumari, who performed at least 15 to 16 illegal kidney transplants between 2021 and 2023. She was assisted by Vikram Singh and Mohammad Sharik.
Forged documents and financial details
Indian law only allows close relatives to donate kidneys, making the sale of kidneys completely illegal.
To circumvent this, the gang forged documents using the Bangladesh High Commission's letterhead to falsely prove that the patient and donor were close relatives.
Suman, Rokan, and Pal were responsible for creating these fake documents.
According to the police, Dr Kumari charged Rs2-3 lakh per patient for each operation, with Singh managing the documents for Rs20,000 per case and Sharik handling post-transplant tests for Rs50,000 to Rs60,000 per case.
Russell and his associates charged patients between Rs25 and Rs30 lakh per transplant.
After paying the medical team and covering the donors' expenses, they divided the remaining money among themselves.
Delhi Police suspect that not all the leaders of the ring have been caught and believe there are others still operating in Dhaka and Delhi.
They are now investigating another similar kidney trafficking ring at a well-known hospital in Haryana's Faridabad city.
