Police have arrested the alleged kingpin of the Apollo organ donation racket near Kolkata, reported The Telegraph. With 40-year-old T Rajkumar Rao arrested from Rajarhat township, the investigators have nine people in their custody in connection with the case. The police had zeroed in on it after finding that several people forged documents and helped donors sell their kidneys illegally for Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh to patients at the hospital.
At least 10 doctors, many from Apollo, are likely to be questioned in the case. According to the police, the doctors were the part of the internal assessment panel that approved the forged documents and thus facilitated the five illegal transplants. Apollo Indraprastha Hospital said it will soon implement steps to strengthen its internal procedures to plug loopholes so that such incidents do not recur. According to the law of the land, only close relatives can donate organs
On Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party government had said a five-member panel will investigate the racket. The committee, which will be headed by the Dean of Maulana Azad Medical College DK Tampe, has to submit an interim report in a week and its final report within 15 days.
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