Hyderabad: The sustained efforts made by Ranga Reddy District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) B Venkateswar Rao in convincing an informer helped in busting the kidney racket at Alakananda Hospital at Doctor’s Colony in Saroornagar.
The informer first gave a tip off about the racket and refused to share hospital details and locations. “The informer might be first trying to check our seriousness to probe into the racket,” Rao explained, while speaking to Deccan Chronicle here on Wednesday.
He said he again called the informer and spoke to him politely with patience making him clear about the importance of the information. In response, the informer got convinced slightly and revealed only the area name, refusing to inform the hospital details. But after much persuasion assuring that the informant details would not be disclosed to anyone, the informer got convinced and disclosed the hospital information.
Based on the tip-off, a special team headed by Rao conducted a joint operation with the police and raided the hospital only to find that the hospital, which was functioning for the last six months, was performing surgeries illegally.
“To my surprise, the informer came to the hospital during the raid, met me and introduced himself,” Rao said, adding that he thanked him for sharing valuable information.
The hospital management headed by Dr. G Sumanth was from Addanki in Andhra Pradesh. After inspecting the hospital, Deputy DMHO Dr. Geetha lodged a complaint with the police officials, who later detained Sumanth.
Taking a serious note of the racket, the State government constituted a committee headed by Saroornagar Government Hospital Professor Nagender to probe into the racket and submit a report. The report would be submitted to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) requesting to take necessary action against the hospital.
Given the severity of the case, the Rachakonda police in coordination with the DMHO intensified the probe to zero in on the modus operandi adopted in performing kidney transplants illegally. Sources said a thorough questioning of Sumanth would help the police in getting more information about the donors and recipients apart from cash transactions involved in the racket.
