Delhi police last week arrested a doctor from Delhi-based Indraprastha Apollo Hospital for her alleged involvement in a kidney transplant racket across Bangladesh and India, reports the Indian Express.

The Indian newspaper also said that three Bangladeshis have been arrested in the same case last month. Documents in the name of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi were also allegedly forged as part of the racket to prove there was a a relationship between donor and recipient (both Bangladeshi), as required by Indian law for organ transplants.

The doctor, Vijaya Kumari, 50, now suspended by Apollo, was the lone doctor working with the gang and had performed around 15-16 transplants between 2021 and 2023 in Noida-based Yatharth Hospital, a private medical facility, Indian Express quoted police as saying.

In the alleged racket, records show, patients from Bangladesh were lured by a network of middlemen, Kumari, and their associates for organ transplantation in major hospitals around the Indian capital.

The Bangladeshis involved in the racket were named in the news report as Rasel, 29, from Kushtia, and his associates Md Sumon Miya, 28, Md Rokon, 26, and Ifti. All except Ifti were arrested.

Together with Tripura-based Ratish Pal, they lured potential donors from Bangladesh to Delhi, where the donors would receive four to five lakh rupees for their kidneys. Recipients were charged 25 to 30 lakh rupees, a source told Indian Express. 

Donors and recipients coordinated their stay, treatment and tests through a medical tourism company named Al Shifa, sources said.  

Rasel rented a flat in Jasola village, where potential donors stayed and met with recipients.

A source told Indian Express, "Five to six donors were staying at this rented flat. All the tests before the transplant were completed. The recipients would also meet the donors at the flat."

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that Rasel identified his associates as Dhaka-based Miyan and Rokon, both of whom were inside the flat during the questioning.

During the arrests, a bag recovered from Rasel's room contained nine passports, two diaries, and a register. These passports belonged to kidney donors and recipients and the diary reportedly had details of monetary transactions between the donor and recipient.

Kumari, a senior consultant and a kidney transplant surgeon, joined Apollo Hospital as a junior doctor almost 15 years ago. She was engaged on a fee-for-service basis and not on the hospital's payroll. Additional Medical Superintendent of Yatharth Hospital, Sunil Baliyan, said Kumari was working with the hospital as a visiting consultant and performed transplants on patients brought by her.

"No patient of Yatharth was given to her and she had performed one surgery in the last three months," he was quoted by Indian Express as saying.

"Given this action by the police, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals (IAH) placed the doctor under suspension. IAH was previously approached by the Crime Branch seeking certain information as part of an investigation, which was duly provided," the news report quoted an IAH spokesperson as saying.

"This action is subsequent to an investigation pertaining to procedures carried out at another hospital and prima facie not related to any action or acts at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals."