FIA busts kidney transplant racket in Islamabad, 5 arrested

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted an organised gang carrying out illegal commercial kidney transplants in Islamabad, arresting five people, seizing Rs1 million in cash and freezing properties worth Rs87.5m, Dawn and The Express Tribune reported.

The agency is also considering a separate money-laundering investigation, the Tribune reported.

The raid

According to an FIA press release issued on Thursday, the agency and the Human Organ Transplantation Authority (HOTA) raided premises in PWD Society, Islamabad. They found that a recipient, Mohammad Qasim, had received a kidney from a donor, Ramzan Arshad, in violation of the law.

Three suspects were arrested on the spot and two more were picked up later. A court granted the FIA seven days’ physical remand of the suspects.

Rs3m for a kidney, Rs340,000 for the donor

Investigators said the recipient paid Rs3m in cash for the transplant. Agents found the donor and promised him Rs400,000:

• Rs340,000 was to go to the donor.
• Rs60,000 was to be shared among three agents as commission.

Surgery in private homes

The suspects performed transplants in residential houses without any medical degree or certificate, the FIA said. The network included agents, a doctor, a nurse, an anaesthesia provider, a medicine supplier, a laboratory test facilitator and a dialysis provider. It operated at private places in PWD Society, Bahria Phase-4 and Peshawar.

How the gang fooled the system

The tissue typing, cross-match, PRA and HLA tests needed before a transplant were carried out illegally through a hospital by agents, Dawn reported.

Because these tests are done only for close relatives approved by HOTA, the suspects submitted donor samples under the names of the recipient’s relatives, with fake referral letters, so that each case looked like a legal transplant between relatives.

Dialysis for recipients was arranged through a technician at a hospital in Islamabad. If a patient’s condition got worse after the operation, the patient was moved to another hospital.

Houses and cars frozen

Investigators found the suspects had bought property in Islamabad with the proceeds:

• a 10-marla house in Media Town worth Rs62.5m
• a 5-marla house in Jinnah Garden Phase-I worth Rs25m

Transfers of both houses have been frozen under Section 5 of the FIA Act, 1974. The agency also seized a Changan Oshan X7 and two Honda Civics and froze their transfer through the excise office. Letters have gone to all banks for the suspects’ records.

The case

An FIR has been registered under Sections 9, 10 and 11(a)(ii) of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2010, read with Sections 34, 419 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Teams from HOTA, the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan inspected the set-up, which has been sealed, and will submit separate reports.

The operation was carried out on the orders of FIA Islamabad Zone Director Syed Shehzad Nadeem Bukhari, under the supervision of Deputy Director Faizan Mir of the Anti-Corruption Circle. Raids are continuing to arrest the remaining suspects, the FIA said.