GUNTUR: The Guntur rural police arrested nine accused in the sensational kidney racket case and arrested four of them on Thursday. Guntur rural SP Ch. V. Appala Naidu said that the gang tried to donate the kidneys of a person to a recipient by showing that they are his relatives by forging Aadhaar cards. He said that presently four people have been arrested and based on further investigation the rest of the culprits will be nabbed. He presented the arrested persons and explained about the Modus operandi during the press meet.
Mr Appala Naidu said that Narasaraopeta tahsildar Vijaya Jyothi Kumari had lodged a complaint against Mudavath Venkateswarlu Naik about applying for family member certificate by submitting a forged Aadhaar card and other documents to donate his kidney to Ch. Siva Nageswara Rao.
The police during investigation found K. Babu Rao of Duggirala, I. Nagamalleswara Rao and A. Yedukondalu of Narasaraopeta, N. Prasad Babu of Tenali, R. Manthru Naik of Nehrunagar Tanda, K. Brahmam of Sattenapalli, M. Ravi of Guntur, Ch. Siva Nageswara Rao of Guntur and Kapilavai Vijay Kumar of Narasraopeta involved in the kidney racket. He explained that Babu Rao was a motorcycle mechanic, who was involved in a murder and is facing financial problems.
The rural SP said that Babu Rao started mediating in kidney transplantation cases by providing kidneys to needy recipients and successfully provided kidney to recipient B. Ranga Rao of Narasaraopeta with the help of Telugu Desam leader Vijay Kumar and Nagamalleswara Rao who influenced revenue officials to issue the required permissions.
Further, Babu Rao arranged kidneys to three other patients and earned Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per transplant. Venkateswarlu Naik decided to sell his kidney to get rid of his debts, contacted Babu Rao and agreed to donate kidney for '5 lakh. Babu Rao forged Aadhaar cards of Naik his wife and children using Photoshop, showed them as relatives of kidney recipient Nageswara Rao and applied for family member and resident certificates.
Mr Appala Naidu said that four accused were arrested and one laptop was seized which was used to forget Aadhar cards and other documents. He added that police continuing investigation about involvement of TD leader Vijay Kumar.
Barcode helps bust kidney gang
The barcode scanning of Aadhaar cards led towards busting of the kidney racket in the Guntur district. Mudavath Venkateswarlu Naik had Rs 7.50 lakh debts and faced severe financial troubles to clear the loans. He met mediator Babu Rao who informed him about need of a kidney to patient Ch. Siva Nageswara Rao who was admitted in Vedantha Hospital at Guntur.
He agreed to give his kidney for Rs 5 lakh. The kidney racket gang changed details of Naik and his wife Hanimi Bai as Ravuri Ravi and Ravuri Lakhmi with the help of Neela Prasad alias Bobby of Tenali. Further, the racket gang created fake proofs about the couple residing at Narasaraopeta and showed them to be relatives of Nageswara Rao. They applied for family member and residence certificates with Narasaraopeta tahsildar Vijaya Kumari.
The kidney racket gang further influenced the tahsildar by getting Telugu Desam leader Kapilavai Vijay Kumar’s recommendation. The revenue officials issued certificates, forwarded it to RDO and the police for further verification. The RDO office completed counter verification and the racket gang obtained certificates.
But, things changed during police verification due to barcode scanning by Circle Inspector Sambasiva Rao. While scanning Sambasiva Rao found their original names and informed the same to the tahsildar, who then lodged a complaint with the police who further started investigation and busted the kidney racket gang.
