5 city private hospitals in kidney racket?

HYDERABAD: Several doctors of government and private hospitals figure in the list of contacts and kidney patients and donors which the police recovered from kidney racket accused Rajendra Prasad and his cousin Venkata Ramana.Confessing to their crime, the duo told the Punjagutta police during interrogation that they collected between Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs 2 lakh from patients to provide a kidney. They also confessed that a few doctors working in private and government hospitals were involved in the kidney racket  and are learnt to have revealed the names of  five corporate hospitals in the state capital which took their help for arranging kidneys for transplantations. Police suspect that a majority of private hospitals were involved in taking the assistance of the two accused  for kidney transplantations  conducted illegally.  The accused were involved in arranging donors to various patients in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and other places. Rajendra Prasad, who had worked as an insurance agent for more than 20 years in Bagalore, has a list of donors. As per their modus operandi, Prasad and Ramana collect details of patients who are in need of kidney transplantation from various hospitals and strike a deal with them. They then contact poor people who are in need of urgent money and lure them into a deal to sell their kidneys. ``Prasad and Ramana arranged kidney donors for businessmen, relatives of film personalities and political leaders. They lured poor donors offering them large amounts of money and collected lakhs of rupees from the patients,’’ a senior police officer said.A special team comprising senior police officials, who visited Nellore, the native place of the accused, obtained information that the accused helped as many as 30 patients and collected Rs 40 lakh from them.Police said the agents would take prospective donors to Dr Ramesh Chada, a nephrologist at Gandhi General Hospital near Musheerabad and Indu Superspecialty Hospital at Karkhana. Two of his assistants, PS Praveen and Prashant, are allegedly working as agents of the racketeers.  ``Dr. Ramesh Chada and two his assistants Praveen and Prashant are still absconding. A special team has been formed to nab them. We can get more information on the kidney racket after arresting the three persons,’’ said assistant commissioner of police (Punjagutta) Venkata Narsaiah.