INDIA:Indian police have issued a countrywide alert for an alleged doctor who operated a massive racket supplying kidneys to wealthy clients after removing them, some even at gunpoint, from over 500 poor labourers, writes Rahul Bediin New Delhi
On the pretence of being offered work many potential donors were lured off Delhi's streets, driven to well-appointed clinics in south Delhi's wealthy suburb of Gurgaon, and either forced or bribed to undergo surgery.
Others like rickshaw pullers or poor farmers were paid between Rs50,000 and Rs100,000 (€874-€1,749) into selling their kidneys, an activity outlawed in India.
And although several similar rackets had been unearthed in India earlier, officials believe this one to be one of the biggest, involving at least four doctors, three private hospitals, 10 pathology clinics and five diagnostic centres.
Last week police arrested four people for their involvement in the kidney racket that had a waiting list of 40 people from at least five countries seeking transplants, but the main person behind the operation absconded.
Police are searching for Amit Kumar who has several aliases and has been accused in past organ transplant schemes elsewhere in India.
He is even reported not to be a qualified medical doctor, but a practitioner of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of health care somewhat akin to homeopathy.
The authorities believe that Mr Kumar has fled the country, with some newspapers and television stations reporting that he could be in neighbouring Nepal which does not have an extradition treaty with India.
"Due to its scale, we believe more members of Delhi's medical fraternity must have been aware of what was going on," Gurgaon police commissioner Mohinder Lal said.
The commissioner suspects that about 400 or 500 kidney transplants were carried out over the past nine years after police raided one of the illegal clinics following a tip-off by a victim.
"I was taken to a room with gunmen," Mohammad Salim told the NDTV television news channel, "where doctors in masks tested my blood, gave me an injection and I lost consciousness."
When he awoke he had pain in his lower abdomen and was informed by a masked man that his kidney had been removed.
"If you tell anyone we will shoot you," he told Mr Salim.
Under India's "Transplantation of Human Organs Act" kidney transplants are allowed only if the organ is donated by a blood relative or spouse, or if there is a swap agreement between two needy families. All transplants need government endorsement.
Poverty, however, stimulates India's illegal organ market, with thousands of poor people willing to sell their body parts as demand far exceeds supply.
The kidney case has shocked people and triggered a nationwide debate on organ transplant law, with the Indian Medical Association calling for legislation to make such activity easier.
The scandal has also erupted at a time when India was projecting itself aboard as a destination for cheap and efficient medical treatments.