Inter-state kidney racket busted in Kodad; six arrested for defrauding patients

Kodad police bust inter-state kidney racket that duped vulnerable patients by promising organ transplants. Six members arrested while four are absconding. The gang extorted lakhs from patients, including Rs 22 lakh from a complainant whose surgery never occurred.

Suryapet: A major inter-state kidney racket operating out of Kodad was busted by local police, with six members of the gang arrested on Wednesday. The syndicate, which exploited vulnerable kidney patients across Andhra Pradesh districts including Vijayawada, Guntur and Srikakulam, was involved in a sophisticated scam that defrauded victims of lakhs of rupees.

According to Kodad DSP Sridhar Reddy, the gang of ten members targeted patients at dialysis centres in Vijayawada, luring them with false promises of arranging kidney donors and facilitating transplants. Acting as intermediaries between donors and recipients, they extorted large sums from victims under the pretext of securing transplants.

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However, as the transplant dates approached, the gang would abscond, leaving the patients deceived and stranded. The breakthrough came following a complaint by Naresh from Srirangapuram near Kodad, who paid Rs 22 lakh in December 2024 for a kidney transplant that never took place.

Based on the complaint, police arrested six members of the gang, who were identified as Kadupuri Tatharao, Kondam Ramadevi, Bondili Prudhviraju, Kodali Baburao, Kandukuri Vishnu Vardhan Babu, and Mohammad Sardar. Four other accused are still at large.

DSP Sridhar Reddy stated that the gang had facilitated over ten illegal kidney transplants by exploiting the desperation of patients in need of life-saving treatment.