Delhi Police arrested a 50-year-old doctor from Delhi-based Indraprastha Apollo Hospital (IAH) last week for her alleged involvement in an organ transplantation racket across Bangladesh and India.

The police have said that Dr Vijaya Kumari, now under suspension, was the lone doctor working with the gang and had performed around 15-16 transplants from 2021-23 in Noida-based private Yatharth Hospital, reports Indian Express.

In the alleged racket, records show, patients from Bangladesh were lured by a network of middlemen, Kumari, and their associates for organ transplantation in major hospitals in the national capital region. Besides Kumari, three Bangladeshi nationals were arrested last month.

Fake documents in the name of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, were allegedly prepared to claim there was a relationship between the donor and recipient (both Bangladeshi) — a requisite as per Indian law. Sources said that these forged documents have also been seized.

Kumari, a senior consultant and a kidney transplant surgeon, sources said, joined Apollo Hospital as a junior doctor almost 15 years ago. She was engaged on a fee-for-service basis and not on the hospital’s payroll.

Additional Medical Superintendent of Yatharth Hospital, Sunil Baliyan, said that Kumari was working with the hospital as a visiting consultant and performed transplants on patients brought by her. “No patient of Yatharth was given to her and she had performed one surgery in the last three months,” he said.

 “Given this action by the police, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals (IAH) placed the doctor under suspension. IAH was previously approached by the Crime Branch seeking certain information as part of an investigation, which was duly provided,” an IAH spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added: “This action is subsequent to an investigation pertaining to procedures carried out at another hospital and prima facie not related to any action or acts at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.”

In the present case, one Rasel, 29, along with associates Mohammed Sumon Miyan, Ifti, all based in Bangladesh, and Tripura-based Ratish Pal, lured potential donors from their country to Delhi. They would donate their kidneys for Rs 4-5 lakh and recipients were charged to the tune of Rs 25-30 lakh, a source said. Except for Ifti, all other accused have been arrested.

Sources said the victim’s medical records from Yatharth Hospital have been seized, showing forged documents from the Bangladesh High Commission. “These documents show it was misused to complete the medical file linked to the transplantation record of the victim,” the source said.