An international kidney transplant racket has been uncovered, involving fake family trees, forged documents, and complex loopholes exploited within the organ transplant system. Central to this racket is a 50-year-old Delhi surgeon, Dr. Vijaya Rajakumari, accused of conducting illegal kidney transplants at two prominent hospitals: Apollo Hospital, Noida, and Yatharth Hospital, Noida. The racket's operation, spread across years, involved fabricating donor-recipient relationships using fraudulent documents to bypass stringent organ donation laws in India.

The investigation revealed that this network catered largely to Bangladeshi patients, charging exorbitant fees while paying low sums to poor donors. Dr. Rajakumari, arrested in July, is believed to have conducted 66 illegal transplants at Apollo and 78 transplants at Yatharth, many of them on Bangladeshi patients. She has denied the allegations, but her role, according to police records, involved manipulating Form 21, a critical document meant to certify the authenticity of donor-recipient relationships.

Fake Family Trees and Forged Documents: One of the key revelations in the case was the use of fake family trees and forged documents to establish a connection between donors and recipients. Organ donation laws in India allow only close relatives to donate organs unless special approval is granted. Form 21, a no-objection certificate issued by embassies, was misused in this racket to manipulate donor-recipient relationships, suggesting that donations were driven by familial love rather than financial incentive.

At the core of the investigation are 125-130 kidney transplants, conducted between 2018 and 2024, all involving foreign nationals, mostly from Bangladesh. Out of these, over 90 Bangladeshi patients underwent transplants at Apollo, with only one case involving a close relative as the donor. Similarly, at Yatharth, none of the 61 cases under scrutiny involved a close relative. Family trees were falsified, and medical reports were forged to disqualify legitimate relatives, paving the way for fake donors to step in.

How the Racket Worked: The syndicate, operated by Dr. Rajakumari and a 10-member team, meticulously planned each operation. Fake medical reports from a fictitious diagnostic lab, forged seals, and manipulated official documents were used to create a web of lies. Poor individuals from Bangladesh were recruited to donate their kidneys, lured by promises of payments ranging from Rs 4 to 5 lakh. The recipients, however, were charged exorbitant sums, sometimes as high as Rs 25 lakh.

Two Bangladeshi nationals, Rasel and Rokon, were arrested for their role in fabricating documents and arranging these illegal transplants. Their base of operations included fake seals of officials, forged signatures, and a variety of false documents stored on their laptops. One of the key pieces of evidence recovered was a plastic box labeled “Oasis Arabia Premium Dates”, found to contain official stickers used to forge authenticity on documents.

Hospital Involvement and Investigations: Both Apollo Hospital and Yatharth Hospital have come under scrutiny, although they have maintained that they followed all legal and ethical procedures. Yatharth Hospital has claimed to have a rigorous multi-layered verification process in place but has also acknowledged the need to strengthen this process in light of the ongoing investigations.

The police investigation has also pointed to potential collusion at the diplomatic level, with claims that a Bangladesh High Commission official expedited patient files for a fee. Although this is under further investigation, it raises concerns about the extent of the racket’s reach and the vulnerabilities in the system.

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