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The Madanapalle police in Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district have booked seven people, including a senior government doctor and two government hospital technicians, after a 29-year-old woman from Visakhapatnam allegedly died following an illegal kidney removal surgery. The incident occurred at Global Multi-Speciality Hospital in SBI Colony, Madanapalle, around 2.30 pm on November 9.
Following the incident, police sealed the hospital and detained 12 people, including two doctors. Police said the victim, Yamuna, had been persuaded to sell her kidney for Rs 8 lakh. The hospital, run by Dr K Avinash and Dr B Shaswathi, is suspected to have conducted multiple unauthorised transplants by involving guest doctors. Both hospital directors, along with brokers and government staff accused of arranging donors and recipients, were taken into custody.
According to media reports, Yamuna was admitted to the hospital on November 9, and her kidney was transplanted into a man from Goa, identified as Ranjan Nayak. Her condition worsened the next morning, and she died soon after. Police alleged that hospital staff and brokers attempted to conceal the incident by moving her body to Tirupati without notifying her family.
Times of India reported that when Yamuna’s live-in partner, Suri Babu, demanded the body, the brokers refused, resulting in an altercation. Babu, who had reportedly introduced Yamuna to the brokers, later informed her mother, Sooramma, and the two approached the police. Tirupati East CI Srinivasulu detained Babu and the brokers and secured Yamuna’s body, the report added.
The case was later transferred to the Madanapalle II Town police, where officers took brokers Pelli Padma, Kakarla Satya, and Venkatesh, along with Babu, into custody. Two dialysis technicians, Balu from Madanapalle and Mehar Raj from Kadiri, and government hospital staff members Bala Rangadu of Madanapalle and Balaji Naik of Punganur were also detained. Dr K Anjaneyulu, the District Coordinator of Health Services (DCHS) for Chittoor and father of Dr Avinash, was also taken into custody to determine whether his official position was misused to facilitate the trade.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Dr Anjaneyulu, in coordination with a doctor from Bengaluru, and dialysis technicians Balu and Meharaj, carried out the illegal kidney removal and transplantation without the required authorisation under the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act. The kidney was allegedly intended for a dialysis patient in Goa. They were aided by three others, Pilli Padma, Sathya, and Suri, all residents of Visakhapatnam who were reportedly part of the conspiracy for financial gain.