Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (NOTTO) under the Union Health Ministry ordered an inquiry into allegations of cash-for-kidney scam against Indraprastha Apollo hospital, official sources said on December 5.
“The NOTTO under the Union Health Ministry has asked the SOTTO (State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation) to inquire into the matter,” an official source told PTI.
Earlier, Delhi Government’s secretary, health and family welfare S B Deepak Kumar said that they were ordering an inquiry into the case. Apollo’s involvement was reported by London-based newspaper The Telegraph.
The daily claims that though paying for organs is illegal in India, a middleman in Myanmar told its reporter that it’s big business.
It said the modus operandi involves elaborate forging of identity documents and staging of ‘family’ photographs to present donors as relatives of would-be patients. Under Indian and Burmese laws, a patient cannot receive an organ from a stranger in normal circumstances.
