Faridabad: Doctor among 7 booked for duping woman into donating kidney

Four days after a 28-year-old woman complained to the police that she was duped into donating one of her kidneys on the promise of a government job for her husband, seven persons were booked o Saturday on charges of cheating, threatening life and organ trafficking, said police.

Rinki Sorout, a resident of Palwal, has alleged that the people she gave her kidney to did not uphold their end of the bargain and she was left to die after the surgery. She complained to the police against a Delhi-based engineer, the kidney recipient, a doctor, hospital staff, caretaker and family members of the kidney recipient and accused them colluding to cheat her and forcefully take her kidney.

Mohendra Verma, assistant commissioner of police, Faridabad, said, “We are on the lookout for all seven suspects, including the doctor. The case is of an illegal organ trade and there are multiple angles that we are investigating but cannot comment on at present. There is a procedure that requires every transplant related documents to be submitted to the hospital committee of competent authority. The documents submitted in this case were forged. The police are now in the process of gathering all the documents and are looking for the agents who facilitated the surgery and the fraud.”

He said they have registered a case against seven persons, including the Delhi resident who received the kidney, his wife, caretaker of his house, hospital coordinator, and the doctor of nephrology department for their involvement in the forgery and transplant of kidney. “We are conducting investigation and based on the outcome the suspects will be arrested,” he said.

Sorout who used to run a small beauty parlour out of her home said she was surfing the internet and looking at posts on her husband's Facebook page in December 2020 when she saw the post seeking a kidney for transplant. “I liked the post and forgot about it. Within two days , I started receiving calls and they asked me to meet them in Delhi. My husband and I went to meet the man who introduced himself as Vinod Magotra, an engineer by profession, and said he was 56 years old. He was looking for a kidney donor and was yet to find a matching donor,” she said.

She further added that Magotra, a Delhi resident, offered to get her husband a government job and promised to take care of her health expenses.He also agreed to provide better education for her children.

“They lured me with false promises and I, along with my two children and husband, were confined to a room in Delhi. We were held hostage until the surgery for 18 months until August 2. When they used to take me for tests to hospital, my family members were locked inside the room with at least four guards stationed outside. They used to threaten to kill us,” Sorout added.

The victim also alleged that only a blood relation can donate organs; so the main suspect arranged for a marriage certificate from Delhi's Nangloi and forged documents to show her as his wife. “My age was shown as 42 to match his age for a marriage certificate, I was taken to at least six private hospitals for the kidney transplant but the surgery was conducted at a hospital in Faridabad's Sector 16,” she said.

Sorout alleged that after the surgery on August 2, she was left to die. “No one took care of me post surgery and I was discharged after six days. We have no money to bear the health expenses and my husband, who was working in an office, was fired after the suspects created a ruckus in the office after he called them to take care of me. I am unable to sit, stand or walk and find it difficult to manage my home and health. I need urgent medical aid, else I will die due to the infection that has spread through my body,” she said.

Police said they have registered a case under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (fraud), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 465 (forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and Sections 18, 19, 20 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994 at Sector 17 police station of Faridabad.

Calls and messages to all the suspects went unanswered.

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