The Hyderabad police on Thursday apprehended 13 persons in connection with an illegal trade in human organs.

Announcing the busting of kidney trade racket on Friday evening, Additional Commissioner of Police A K Khan said those arrested included six brokers, six donors and a prospective donor.

Thirty fake rubber stamps of various government departments, three cell phones, a computer and a motorcycle were seized from them.

Khan said the donors were paid Rs 60-80,000 while the brokers managed to rake in Rs 10-50,000, depending on the services rendered.

He gave the names of the brokers as: Athukuri Vasu (31), S Narasimha Rao (34), Mettu Raju (35), T Pitchaiah (35), K Srinivas (40) and Ippa Jayaram Reddy (28).

The names of the donors are: G Venu (22), Chekka Raju (21), K Ramana (30), P V S Rama Raju (33), K Ratnakar (38), B Subbu (26) and B Vasudeva Charyulu (26) (prospective donor).

All of them hailed from districts in coastal Andhra and the Telangana region, save one donor who was from the neighbouring state of Karnataka.

A criminal case was registered under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 197, 109 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 18 and 19 of the Andhra Pradesh Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1995.

Khan said each of the brokers had sold one of their kidneys.

Their modus operandi was to go around hospitals in search of patients with kidney problems.

After establishing contact with needy patients, they located a suitable donor bearing in mind the former's blood group.

The brokers kept a record of the addresses of potential donors, who were mostly poor people.

Thereafter, they arranged a meeting between the patient and the donor where the price for the kidney was fixed.

In some cases, the broker merely introduced the donor to the patient.

In others, the broker undertook the task of arranging the documentation, in which case the commission was higher.
Khan said Athukuri Vasu, S Narasimha Rao and Mettu Raju came in the second category.

Often, Vasu and his accomplices prepared the required documentation using fake rubber stamps and computers.

The arrested brokers had arranged kidney donors for about 28 patients in at least five hospitals in the city.
Some government officials were also involved in this racket and the police is probing the matter, Khan said.

More reports from Andhra Pradesh