Five people were arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the State Crime Branch on Thursday in connection with the illegal kidney sale and transplantation in Kandhamal district recently. This was informed by Crime Branch ADG BK Sharma here on Friday.
The arrested persons were identified as Mahendra Pattnaik (42) of Brahmapur (recipient), his wife Sulata Pattnaik (38), elder brother Rajendra Pattnaik (56) of Brahmapur, brother-in-law Kiran Kumar Pattnayak (37) of Hinjlicut in Ganjam district and Trinath Mohanty (53) of Phulbani town in Kandhamal district.
Talking to reporters here, the ADG said the three accused, Kiran, Rajendra and Trinath were forwarded to a local court in Phulbani, while the couple was out on bail on health grounds. Sharma stated that the accused with the help from Trinath had hatched a plan to get one of the kidneys from a dalit youth of Phulbani town, Kanhu Behera.
He said the accused had tried to take a kidney from Kanhu’s father Baruna Behera, a daily labourer. But when his kidney could not match with the recipient, they contacted his son Kanhu who agreed to sell one of his two kidneys to Mahendra for Rs 3.5 lakh, he added.
The ADG said Kanhu was first taken to Chennai to remove the organ at Seven Hills Hospital and then to other hospitals. But as these hospital authorities refused, the accused took Kanhu to a hospital at Colombo in Sri lanka on March 19 where the doctors removed one of his kidneys and transplanted it in Mahendra’s body. All of them returned from Sri lanka on April 4, he added.
The Crime Branch had started investigating into the case acting on a report filed by Kandhamal Sub Collector Balaram Mallik.
“The accused had executed the process in a fraudulent manner by showing Kanhu as the adopted son of the recipient,” Sharma said, adding, “The Crime Branch has slapped charges under sections 18, 19, 20, 21 of Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act and 467, 468, 471, 474, 120 (B) of IPC against the accused after registering a fresh case in the incident on July 13.” Earlier on July 3, the ADG said, a similar case was registered by Phulbani Town police station.