Rashmiranjan Khantua being taken to Choudwar jail after his bail petition was rejected on Monday. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, June 23: After being on the run for over a month, Rashmiranjan Khatua, the alleged kingpin of the kidney sale racket, today surrendered before the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) court here.

Khatua, who used to run a nursing home at Badambadi in the city, was remanded in judicial custody till July 5. He has been sent to Choudwar Jail, said government counsel Rajanikant Mishra.

“We will bring Khatua on remand to ascertain more facts in the kidney sale racket,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

Khatua, 37, had acted as a middleman and is suspected to have forged all the documents required for the transplant that was conducted in a Bhubaneswar hospital on April 26, Sharma said.

The scandal surfaced after the family members of one Padmini Nayak, the donor, alleged that her kidney was removed at a hospital in Bhubaneswar.

Subsequent, police investigations revealed that she had agreed to donate one of her kidneys after she was promised Rs 2.50 lakh by one Sharmistha Nayak.

On May 13, Mangalabag police arrested Sharmistha, who used to run a self-help group in the city. Ten days later, the police managed to nab Nirakar Choudhury in connection with the incident.

Choudhury had allegedly contacted Khatua to search for a donor for his uncle seeking the kidney transplant. Khatua and Sharmistha had struck a deal with Padmini at his nursing home in Badambadi. Soon after his name figured in the scam, he absconded.

The cops are also investigating another case of kidney ‘donation’ that was carried out illegally at Seven Hills Hospital at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on April 4.

One Namita Nayak of Nayaksahi in the city had accused Sharmistha of luring her to donate her kidney for money.

Investigations revealed that the donor’s voter identity card was forged and she was described as Namita Lenka, wife of the recipient Mohan Chandra Lenka. The usual norms were not followed by the hospital authorities before conducting the transplant.

In all, six persons, including N. Prabhakar Babu, one of the directors of the Seven Hills Hospital and the brother of the recipient, have been arrested in connection with the twin incidents of kidney sale racket.