Kidney racket: Notices served to coordinators of PSRI, Fortis hospitals

KANPUR: Even as police arrested and sent CEO of Delhi's Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute (PSRI) hospital -Dr Deepak Shukla to jail on Saturday, in order to speed up the pace of the investigation, notices have been served to coordinators of PSRI and Fortis hospitals Delhi, whose name surfaced during interrogation of donor providers, arrested in connection with kidney transplant racket unearthed in the City in the month of February this year.
"In order to speed up the pace of the investigation in the kidney racket case in which names of coordinators including Sunita Prabhakaran and Mithun from the PSRI and Sonika of Fortis hospital of Delhi surfaced, the SIT has issued notices to them. They have been given three days time during which they will have to present themselves before the SIT and get their statement recorded. Among the three coordinators, Sunita Prabhakaran and Mithun from PSRI in order to avoid their arrest, had already taken stay from the court, since the racket was busted by Kanpur police in February this year," said SP Crime Rajesh Yadav.
Police sources, meanwhile, said, during initial investigations it came to fore that the ten persons arrested from Kanpur in the recent past, used to coordinate with Sunita Prabhakaran, Mithun and Sonika, coordinators at PSRI and Fortis hospitals of Delhi.
The police so far have arrested eleven persons in the case.
To recall, acting on a complaint from an electricians wife at the Barra police station, cops had busted an international kidney racket on February 17 2019 in the City, and arrested Gaurav Mishra of Lakhimpur Khiri, T Rajkumar Rao of Kolkata, Shailesh Saxena of Badarpur in Delhi, Saboor Ahmad of Kakori near Lucknow, Vicky Singh of Panki near Kanpur and Shamshad Ali of Chowk in Lucknow.
Subsequently an SIT was formed in the month of March.
Following a tip-off provided by the six arrested persons, the police on March 2, had arrested two more persons identified as Ramu Pandey and Shyam Tiwari from the City. On the latter's inputs, again, the police on April 15, had arrested one more person identified as Junaid from Andha Quan in Barra area of the City.
During further course on investigation, global linkages had also emerged from the inter-state kidney racket wherein one Dr Ketan Kaushik, a Delhi-based private practitioner, used to handle the gangs international clientele. Dr Kaushik is still on run.
SIT visited Delhi to question suspects on March 5 2019.