organ transplant scams

whistle-blower

financial stress

domestic problems

Hiranandani Hospital

kidney transplant

Sundar Singh had recounted in August 2016 how the agent and doctors conned him. (Right) Cops outside his Diva house

Cops say the body of Sundar Singh had decomposed but no foul play suspected.Two years after he blew the lid off one of the biggestinvolving Mumbai’s top private hospital, the 25-yearold, Sundar Singh, was yesterday found dead in his oneroom house in the far-flung suburb of Diva. The police found Singh’s decomposed body hanging from the ceiling fan. Though no suicide note was found, the cops have prima facie ruled out foul play, sayingandmay have led to Singh committing suicide.The organ transplant scam came to light after a team from Powai Police Station barged inside the operation theatre ofon July 14, 2016 and stopped amidway following a tip-off that the recipient and the donor were not related. Fourteen people, including the hospital’s CEO and five doctors were arrested, while the patient, Brijkishor Jaiswal from Surat, who had paid Rs 5 lakh to an agent to get a kidney, died a month later. The tip-off regarding Jaiswal’s illegal transplant was provided to the police by an activist who was in turn alerted by Singh, who had several documents to show the agent-doctors nexus.In March 2016, Singh himself had donated his kidney to a Delhibased woman for which he was promised Rs 5 lakh by an agent, Brijendra Bisen, the mastermind of the Hiranandani organ transplant racket. Singh told the police that he received a measly Rs 15,000, after which he decided to expose the scam.The Mumbra police told Mirror yesterday that Singh’s neighbours in Om Sai Mauli Apartments reported a stench after which his flat door was pulled down. “Singh was having problems with his wife who had left for her village in Uttar Pradesh with their son earlier this month. It’s a clear case of suicide as the door was locked from inside. We are yet to record his wife Seema’s statement,” Senior Inspector Kishore Pasalkar said.Neighbours told the police that after the organ transplant scam came to light, Singh’s financial troubles increased as he was not able to find employment. He started a pav bhaaji stall with a friend which ran into losses after which he started selling vada pav. Officers who probed the Hiranandani organ transplant scam refused to comment on how Singh’s death will impact the case, with one of them saying the police have already filed a charge sheet running into 1,000 pages.