Hyderabad police issue lookout notice against prime accused in kidney racket
Hyderabad: Hyderabad police have issued a lookout notice for Pawan alias Lion, who is absconding in an alleged illegal kidney transplantation racket at a private hospital in the city. Since he has been untraceable for weeks, the police officials believe, he may have escaped to another country.
The probe revealed that Pawan, a native of Visakhapatnam, has been identified as the mastermind behind the illegal kidney transplant operations. Another accused Laxman, who was earlier arrested, allegedly acted as a middleman in the sensational kidney transplant racket.
According to the police investigation, Pawan’s modus operandi involved identifying poor people from different states, luring them with hefty amounts to donate their kidneys. He also arranged surgeries at Alakananda hospital.
During the investigation, it was found that Pawan ran a vast network across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and other states and maintained secrecy to avoid detection.
The illegal kidney transplant racket was busted by a joint operation involving special operations team (SOT) of LB Nagar zone and a team of doctors from the Ranga Reddy district medical and health office (DMHO) at Alakananda Hospital at Doctors Colony in Saroor Nagar on January 21, 2025.
So far, 10 accused persons, including hospital managing director Dr Guntupally Sumanth and his assistant, Narasani Gopi, have been arrested in connection with the kidney racket. The other arrested individuals are surgeon Siddamshetty Avinash, prime accused (A-1) in the case, mediators Ponnuswamy Pradeep and Suraj Mishra, medical assistants Ramavath Ravi, Sapavath Ravinder, Sapavath Harish and Podila Sai.
The accused persons have been charged under sections 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 143 (1) (human trafficking), 318 (4) (cheating and dishonesty of inducing people) and 3 (5) (jointly committing crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. They are also booked under relevant sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.