Kerala organ trade case: Kingpin arrested from Hyderabad

Kerala organ trade case: Kingpin arrested from Hyderabad

In a major breakthrough, the special investigation team (SIT) of the Ernakulam Rural police probing the illegal organ trade and related human trafficking case nabbed the kingpin of the Hyderabad-based racket from his hideout in Hyderabad.

The accused, identified as Ballamkonda Ram Prasad, aka Prasad, 41, of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, was nabbed from a hotel in Hyderabad on May 30. He has since been brought to Kochi and his arrest was recorded.

District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena said the accused was the “go-to person” not just for the Hyderabad-based racket but for other rackets also because of his uncanny ability to find donors perfectly matching the recipients.

“In our case, he has supplied 60% of the donors and none of them were rejected by the hospitals suggesting that in the initial stages, services of laboratories, mostly in Hyderabad, were used in ensuring the match. Usually, it is difficult to find matching donors in organ transplantation,” he said.

Prasad had also arranged for sending Shameer, the lone Malayali donor from Palakkad involved in the case, to Iran last month. Though widely referred to as a Malayali, Shameer is originally from Pollachi in Tamil Nadu.

“Prasad was in direct contact with the other accused, Madhu (who is now in Iran). Those looking for organ donors were in direct touch with Madhu who then sends the requirements to Prasad,” said Mr. Saxena.

Though Prasad has confessed to have been in the trade since the COVID-19 pandemic, the police suspect that he had been active long before that. Prasad had reportedly first approached the racket as a kidney donor but when his health did not allow it, he started working for them.