Kidney racket: Middleman’s name crops up

A day after two new names, including that of an informant, emerged as accused in the ongoing Hiranandani kidney donation racket, police sources revealed that another middleman’s name has cropped up in the investigations. Officers suspect that this new accused, Saeed Khan, was a middleman who would supply donors from Gujarat and other states.

“Khan’s name cropped up during the interrogations of Baijendra Bisen, the mastermind in the racket. While we are still probing the exact role Khan played, we suspect that his job was to scout for people from impoverished backgrounds and convince them to sell their kidneys,” said the officer. He added that Khan may be working from Gujarat or other states, and not the city.

Sources in the Powai police had, on Thursday, revealed that two new names — Sunder Singh and Vinod Patel — had emerged during investigations. While Singh was an alleged informant, Patel is a known repeat offender and has been involved in various kidney donation rackets in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, an officer said, adding that both of them are absconding. The officer added that Khan was absconding as well.

“We have a team looking for him and will arrest him as soon as we find him,” the source said.

Meanwhile, investigators revealed that they wouldbe checking the transplant records of all the hospitals in the city where the arrested doctors practised.

According to sources, two of the five arrested doctors practised in various leading hospitals in the city. “Our investigations show that Dr Mukesh Shete practises in seven major hospitals in the city and Dr Mukesh Shah in two other leading hospitals. We will be checking the transplant operations conducted in these hospitals too,” the officer said.