India, long celebrated as a global hub for affordable, world-class medical care, is increasingly under fire for a darker reality lurking beneath its booming medical-tourism industry. Behind the glossy brochures and five-star hospital lobbies lies a rampant black market for illegal organ transplants, where foreign patients are lured, lied to, and left financially and physically devastated.
From Myanmar to Bangladesh, Cambodia to the Middle East, desperate patients seeking life-saving kidney and liver transplants are being trafficked into India under false promises, only to find themselves trapped in a web of forged documents, fake familial ties, and exploitative brokers—often with the complicity of top Indian hospitals and the star surgeons who headline their marketing posters.
The Human Cost: Foreign Patients as Prey
In July 2025, Al Jazeera exposed a cross-border kidney trafficking syndicate operating between India and Bangladesh, where impoverished Bangladeshis were either duped into donating kidneys or promised jobs in India, only to be forced into surgery and abandoned with minimal compensation.
One victim, Mohammad Sajal, sold his kidney at Venkateshwar Hospital in New Delhi for a promised 1 million taka (~$8,200), but received only 350,000 taka. After being cheated, he himself became a broker to survive. “Everyone from doctors to recipients to brokers on both sides of the border are involved,” he admitted.
In another case, 18 Cambodian patients were stranded in India after paying $50,000 each to a Phnom Penh-based clinic for kidney transplants that never happened. The clinic, Metro RLV Polyclinic, had partnered with Metro Hospital in India, but vanished with the money, leaving patients homeless and untreated for months.
Forged Families: The Fake Document Factory
India’s Transplantation of Human Organs Act (1994) prohibits organ sales and only allows donations between close relatives—unless approved by a government panel for altruistic reasons. But traffickers have mastered the art of forgery.
A 2023 Telegraph investigation revealed that Apollo Hospitals in Delhi was enticing poor villagers from Myanmar to sell their kidneys to wealthy Burmese patients. The scam involved staging fake family photos, forging household documents, and creating false family trees to pass off strangers as relatives.
An agent told the undercover reporter:
“We take photos of the donor and recipient at a Buddhist temple to make it look like they’ve known each other for years. The photos are creased and crumpled to look old.”
These documents are then submitted to hospital authorization committees, which approve the transplants—often without scrutiny.
Doctors in the Dock: Surgeon Arrested for 15 Illegal Transplants
In July 2024, Delhi Police arrested Dr. Vijaya Rajakumari, a transplant surgeon associated with Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, for performing 15 illegal kidney transplants on Bangladeshi patients between 2021 and 2023.
Though the Apollo hospital denied any wrongdoing, police found that fake documents were used to fabricate familial relationships between donors and recipients. Dr. Rajakumari allegedly conducted the surgeries at Yatharth Hospital after Apollo’s authorization committee rejected the cases.
Despite the severity of the charges, she was granted bail—a pattern seen in nearly every major transplant scam in India.
The Big Names: Apollo, Medanta, Max, Fortis – Liver & Kidney Stars Under Scrutiny
Apollo Hospitals
2016: Five arrested for kidney trafficking at Indraprastha Apollo, including two personal assistants of a senior nephrologist.
2023: Telegraph investigation links Apollo to Myanmar organ trade; Health Ministry orders probe.
2024: Dr. Vijaya Rajakumari, a visiting consultant at Apollo, arrested for illegal transplants on Bangladeshis.
Apollo has consistently denied complicity, claiming it is a victim of forged documents and rogue agents.
Medanta Medicity, Gurugram
NOTTO 2023 review found 104 foreign liver transplants (2021-23) used identical voter-ID templates; donor addresses traced to single-room shanties in Kolkata.
Hospital blamed “external document agents”; no licence suspended.
2017 Facebook scam: impostor page offered $450,000 for liver lobes, used Medanta OT photos & Soin’s credentials to lure Iraqi sellers; hospital issued press release but never filed FIR.
2017: A neurologist at Medanta filed a police complaint after his name and photo were used in a fake Facebook profile offering $450,000 for kidneys.
2008: Gurgaon’s biggest kidney racket was busted, involving Dr. Amit Kumar, who illegally transplanted 600 kidneys in a clinic linked to Medanta’s network.
While no direct evidence tied Medanta to the 2008 scam, the hospital’s name has repeatedly surfaced in organ trafficking conversations and online rackets.
Max Super Speciality Hospital
2024: Sandeep Arya, a former transplant coordinator at Max Gurgaon, was arrested for running a nationwide kidney racket involving over 34 illegal transplants.
Arya, an MBA graduate, lured poor donors via social media, charged ₹35–40 lakh per transplant, and forged documents to bypass legal checks.
Max Hospital denied knowledge of his activities, but police confirmed he used his position to facilitate transplants across Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, and UP.
Max Super Speciality Hospital is also facing scrutiny over its billing practices. The Delhi State Consumer Commission is hearing three complaints alleging “unfair robotic billing.” Internal operation theatre logs from January to August 2025, reportedly from a whistle-blower, show that 28 of 34 “robotic” liver donor surgeries were converted to open procedures, yet all bills included a ₹4.05 lakh charge for “robotic consumables.” The National Medical Commission has opened a preliminary enquiry into the matter.
Fortis Escorts – Jaipur & Bengaluru
2024: Dr. Sandeep Gupta (urologist) and Dr. Jitendra Goswami (nephrologist) at Fortis Jaipur were arrested for performing kidney and liver transplants on five Bangladeshi citizens using fake Rajasthan-government NOCs. A ₹70,000 bribe was paid to a government clerk; patients were housed in rented flats and shuttled in hospital-owned ambulances.
2010: Dr. Ramcharan Thiagarajan, liver & pancreas surgeon at Fortis Bannerghatta, conducted a pancreas transplant without a licence; patient Seema Rai died. The Karnataka government cancelled Fortis’s licence for liver, kidney and pancreas transplants, but a High-Court stay allowed the doctor to continue practice.
The Systemic Loopholes: Why It Keeps Happening
- Authorization committees are easily duped by fake documents.
- Hospitals profit from high-volume transplants, with little accountability.
- Foreign patients are vulnerable—language barriers, lack of legal recourse, and desperation make them easy targets.
- Arrests are rare, convictions even rarer, and bail is almost guaranteed.
As Moniruzzaman, a bioethics expert, told Al Jazeera:
“Instead of enforcing ethical standards, the focus is on the economic advantages of medical tourism, allowing illegal transplants to continue.”
Conclusion: A Call for Global Accountability
India’s medical tourism industry, now worth $7.6 billion, is built on trust. But that trust is being exploited by unscrupulous hospitals, doctors, and brokers who profit from human desperation.
Foreign patients seeking life-saving transplants are not just being overcharged—they are being deceived, endangered, and discarded.
Unless India’s government tightens enforcement, punishes complicit institutions, and bans repeat offenders from the transplant ecosystem, the country’s reputation as a medical destination will continue to rot from within.
References:
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/7/4/village-of-one-kidney-india-bangladesh-organ-traffickers-rob-poor-donors
- https://camboja.news/18-cambodian-patients-stranded-in-india-after-organ-transplant-scam/
Revealed: Global private hospital group embroiled in ‘cash for kidneys’ racket (telegraph.co.uk) - Kidney trade: Myanmar villagers fly to India to sell organs illegally (bbc.com)
- Surgeon at ‘cash for kidneys’ hospital linked to new organ trafficking claims (telegraph.co.uk)
- ‘Cash-for-kidney’ scam: Health Ministry orders probe against Apollo Hospitals – The Hindu
- New Delhi investigating alleged illegal transplants at Apollo hospital in city | Reuters
- World Bank urged to review funding of hospital chain linked to ‘cash for kidneys’ racket (telegraph.co.uk)
- Cash-for-kidneys scam: Ministry orders inquiry against Apollo Hospitals | India News – Business Standard (business-standard.com)
- https://theprobe.in/public-health/the-underworld-of-organ-transplantation-in-india-4471750
- Delhi police uncover massive illegal kidney racket led by MBA graduate | Latest News India (hindustantimes.com)
- India’s most notorious kidney-transplant racketeer | The Caravan (caravanmagazine.in)
- : Centre concerned over hospitals not sharing organ transplant data – The Hindu
- Organ transplantation case: Jaipur police arrest two doctors of Fortis | Hindustan Times
- Forged Papers: Organ Transplant Scam Uncovered in Jaipur | Jaipur News – Times of India (indiatimes.com)
- Many Jaipur hospitals under lens for illegal organ transplant – Medical Buyer
- Fortis loses licence for organ transplant (deccanherald.com)