Nephrologist, 2 aides held in kidney racket

HYDERABAD: In a major breakthrough in the illegal kidney transplantation racket at Gandhi Hospital, Punjagut ta pol ice on Wednesday arrested a nephrologist of the hospital along with his close aides, who have been at large since a few days.Police said, the three accused-- Ramesh Chadha, nephrologist at Gandhi Hospital and his assistants Ganesh and Pratap-- were luring poor people in need of urgent money to donate their kidneys, offering huge amounts.Besides working as nephrologist at the hospital, Ramesh also runs Indu Super Specialty Clinic in Karkhana.He also works as consultant at two other private hospitals in the city.S Yadgiri (26), a resident of Dubbaka, lodged a complaint with the police stating that Ramesh met him at Indu Clinic on May 3 and tried to lure him to donate kidney.Earlier, police arrested two agents N Venkata Srinivasa Rao of Addanki and his cousin E Rajender Prasad, who tried strike a deal with Yadgiri to sell away his kidney, promising Rs 4 lakh and took him to Ramesh.Punjagutta Divison assistant commissioner of police Venkata Narsaiah said Ramesh met Yadgiri at Indu clinic in the presence of Ganesh, Pratap and tried to convince him to donate one Kidney.The associates of Ramesh met Yadgiri by introducing them as Praveen and Prashant.The trio were arrested near Indu Clinic on Wednesday evening.Cases were registered under section 420 read with 511 of the IPC and section 18 under Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.