Kanpur police sealed three city hospitals on Wednesday, days after
arresting six people — including two doctors — for their alleged involvement in a kidney-transplant racket.

At least six more hospitals are suspected to be involved in the crime, the police said.

The arrested doctors include Priti Ahuja, vice-president of the Kanpur chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), and her husband Surjit Ahuja.

Narendra Singh, Rajesh Kushwaha and Ram Prakash Kushwaha, managers of Priya Hospital, Medlife Hospital
and Arohi Hospital, respectively, have also been taken into custody.

Police sources said staff members of all these hospitals had fled on Tuesday, but the premises were sealed on Wednesday and the patients shifted to other hospitals.

Kanpur police commissioner Raghubir Lal said the matter came to light when a young man from Uttarakhand approached the cops, claiming that he had sold his kidney
to middleman Shivam Agrawal for ₹10 lakh but got ₹9.50 lakh only.

“As we started investigating the case, we found that the racketeers used to target financially vulnerable people and encourage them to donate their kidneys. The hospitals didn’t have licences to conduct these operations and the doctors were not trained for the job,” he said.

“There are half a dozen more doctors to be identified and arrested soon. Over 40 kidney transplants were done illegally in the last few months,” he said.

Police sources said there were many poor college students whom the racketeers had encouraged to donate their kidneys to continue their education. The kidneys were allegedly bought for ₹60,000 to ₹10 lakh but sold to clients for anywhere between ₹60 lakh and ₹1 crore.

The complainant had donated his kidney to a woman from Muzaffarnagar. He had received ₹6 lakh in cash and ₹3.5 lakh through cheque
from Shivam, the alleged kingpin of the racket.

The arrested accused have been sent to 14 days' judicial custody on the charge of violating the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.

“The doctors and the hospitals found involved in the racket didn’t have the requisite licence. Evidence suggests that some people from South Africa travelled to Kanpur for illegal kidney transplants. Some New Delhi-based doctors are also involved in this racket,” a police officer in
Lucknow said on the condition of anonymity.