The transplant coordinator of a leading hospital in Faridabad was arrested on June 11 for her alleged role in an international kidney transplant racket, police said.



Sonika Dabas was sent a notice by the Kanpur police to appear before Superintendent of Police (Crime) Rajesh Yadav, who was heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case. She had appeared before the SIT on June 10 and faced intensive questioning in the sensational racket which was busted in the city in February and spreads across Turkey and the Middle East countries, Yadav said.

There was enough evidence to prove the involvement of Dabas in the racket. A kidney transplant took place at her hospital in Faridabad and she also took a large amount of money from the recipient, the SP said. After corroborating her role, Dabas was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and forgery, the SP said, adding that she was produced before the special chief judicial magistrate from where she was sent to jail.

Over a dozen leading private surgeons, urologists, and pathologists were under the scanner in connection with the racket, he said. The investigation was underway against several leading hospitals and doctors, and more arrests were likely to be made in the near future, an official associated with the SIT said. 

On June 9, Dipak Shukla, the CEO of a private hospital in Delhi, was arrested by the police after he was brought for questioning. Besides Dabas and Shukla, eight people, including the racket's alleged kingpin, Gaurav Mishra, have been arrested till now.
The international kidney racket was busted on February 17. 

People involved in it used to remove kidneys of poor people illegally and send them for transplant into patients, including foreigners. The police have arrested Gaurav Mishra of Lakhimpur Khiri, T Rajkumar Rao of Kolkata, Shailesh Saxena of Badarpur in New Delhi, Saboor Ahmad of Kakori in Lucknow, Vicky Singh of Panki in Kanpur and Shamshad Ali of Chowk in Lucknow, Shyam Tiwari and Ramu Pandey in the case.  Going by the investigations, almost all the donors have accused Gaurav Mishra of trapping them.