UP: Kanpur police bust kidney racket, 6 including 5 doctors arrested. Read how a Rs 50,000 dispute exposed multi-crore organ trade; Exclusive details

On the intervening night of 30th March and 31st March, Kanpur police in Uttar Pradesh busted a multi-crore illegal kidney transplant racket involving at least six doctors and eight others. The information about the organ trade came to light over a dispute of Rs 50,000. One of the ‘donors’, who was promised Rs 10 lakh in exchange for his one kidney, received only Rs 9.5 lakh. Irked by the loss of Rs 50,000, he approached the police and revealed details of the racket. थाना-रावतपुर व सर्विलांश टीम पश्चिम जोन की संयुक्त कार्यवाही..कानपुर नगर में किडनी ट्रांसप्लांट रैकेट का खुलासा, 6 गिरफ्तार रैकेट में शामिल अन्य 04 की तलाश जारी..कमिश्नरेट कानपुर नगर में अपराधियों के विरुद्ध चलाए जा रहे अभियान के क्रम में पुलिस को एक बड़ी सफलता प्राप्त हुई है।… pic.twitter.com/RvWGLfPUz5— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE KANPUR NAGAR (@kanpurnagarpol) March 31, 2026 Police have booked six doctors, Dr Surjeet Singh Ahuja, Dr Preeti Ahuja, Dr Rohit, Dr Vaibhav, Dr Anurag and Dr Afzal, Shivam Agarwal, Rajesh Kumar, Ram prakash Kushwaha, Narendra Singh and others in the matter. At least six people have been arrested so far. OpIndia accessed the FIR registered in the matter, which has been registered on the complaint of Sub Inspector Mukesh Kumar under Sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and Sections 143 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS). Source: UP police Multiple hospitals are involved in the racket, including Priya Hospital and Trauma Centre, Ahuja Hospital and Medlife Hospital. Media reports suggested that Dr Afzal, Dr Rohit, Dr Vaibhav and Dr Anurag were the key masterminds behind the racket, while Dr Surjeet and his wife owned Ahuja Hospital where operations were carried out. How Rs 50,000 dispute exposed the racket According to media reports, a kidney donor approached the police claiming that he had been cheated of Rs 50,000 from the agreed amount. The donor has been identified as Ayush, an MBA student who hails from Samastipur in Bihar and has been living in Meerut. He claimed that he agreed to sell one of his kidneys for Rs 10 lakh due to financial distress. However, he received only Rs 9.5 lakh, which triggered the dispute. Frustrated by repeated delays and short payment, he approached the police, which set off an investigation exposing layers of an organised organ trade running in the city. Donors lured through deception, organs sold at huge profits During the investigation, police found that an ambulance driver from Kalyanpur, identified as Shivam Agarwal, used platforms such as Telegram to lure financially vulnerable youth. He posed as a facilitator for medical needs and convinced donors that kidneys were required for relatives. In Ayush’s case, the kidney was allegedly sold to the family of a woman from Muzaffarnagar for amounts ranging between Rs 60 lakh and over Rs 90 lakh, while the donor received only a fraction of the total transaction. In another suspected instance, a female student was reportedly paid around Rs 4 lakh, while her organ may have been sold for Rs 45 to Rs 50 lakh. Three-hospital model used to avoid detection Police investigations indicate that the racket followed a structured three-hospital model to evade scrutiny. The kidney extraction was carried out at one facility, after which the donor and recipient were briefly kept together before being shifted to separate hospitals for post operative care. Ayush was moved to another hospital under a different identity, while the recipient was shifted elsewhere. This ensured that no single hospital had complete records of the transplant process. What the FIR says OpIndia accessed the FIR in the matter. According to the FIR, police were alerted about the kidney racket at Ahuja Hospital when they were on duty checking suspicious persons and vehicles near Maswanpur crossing. The informant told police that doctors not from the hospital were conducting transplants on individuals brought from other places by luring them with money. He also told police that an operation was underway at that time. Source: UP police Police immediately swung into action and informed senior officials. A team of additional police personnel and a medical team led by Assistant Chief Medical Officer Dr Ramit Rastogi was formed. They reached the hospital and first encountered Shivam Agarwal, who initially denied knowledge of any transplant activity and directed them to Dr Surjeet Singh Ahuja. When Dr Ahuja and his wife Dr Preeti Ahuja saw the police, they became nervous. Initially, they denied any wrongdoing. However, when questioned, it was found that the CCTV cameras at the hospital were not functioning, and Dr Ahuja admitted that they were deliberately switched off on days when illegal transplants took place. According to the FIR, both doctors and Shivam admitted to being involved in the illegal activity for financial gain. They confirmed that an illegal transplant had been conducted in the hospital’s operation theatre the previous night. They further told police that it was Shivam’s job to arrange donors and patients. The hospital’s operation theatre was used for surgeries in exchange for Rs 2,75,000 in cash. The surgical team for the transplant was led by Dr Rohit along with Dr Vaibhav, Dr Anurag, Dr Afzal and others, who reportedly arrived from outside, conducted operations at night and left thereafter. The FIR further stated that all medicines and arrangements were handled by this external team, and after surgery, the donor and recipient were shifted separately to different hospitals. During inspection, four cartons containing medicines and equipment used in the operation were recovered and sealed. The FIR noted that the recipient, Parul Tomar, and the donor, Ayush Kumar, were traced to separate hospitals, where medical officers confirmed that both had undergone kidney surgery. The FIR also recorded that hospital admissions were made without documentation and that Shivam Agarwal admitted to facilitating multiple such cases since 2024. Following recovery of evidence and interrogation, the accused were taken into custody. Investigators said Dr Afzal allegedly identified patients at dialysis centres and persuaded them to undergo transplants, while surgical teams were reportedly brought in from cities such as Lucknow and Noida to carry out operations. Organised nexus spanning hospitals and medical professionals Investigators believe that the racket was not an isolated operation but a coordinated nexus involving brokers, hospital operators and medical professionals. Brokers arranged donors, hospitals facilitated illegal procedures and doctors allegedly conducted transplants without proper documentation. Operations were often conducted late at night, and patients were shifted immediately after surgery to avoid detection. Inter-state and international links suspected Police Commissioner Raghuveer Lal indicated that the network could have links beyond Kanpur, extending to cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and even internationally to Nepal and South Africa. Preliminary findings suggest that between 40 and 50 illegal transplants may have been carried out, including on foreign nationals. Further investigation is underway.