Police in Akola, Maharashtra, have busted an international kidney racket with the arrest of a money lender who had forced a daily wage worker to travel all the way to Sri Lanka to sell off his kidney to repay a loan of Rs 20,000.

The police have also arrested an agent who struck the deal for the moneylender in Colombo. The role of a Nagpur hospital, where the preliminary tests were conducted on the daily wage worker before he flew to Colombo, is also being probed, Times of India said.

The Akola police stumbled upon the kidney racket when they found the daily wager Santosh Gawli's travel to Sri Lanka on a tourist visa suspicious and picked him up for routine questioning on Monday.The investigating team were stunned when Gawli told them about the purpose of his visit to Colombo. The team moved quickly and arrested the moneylender Anand Jadhav and his agent Devendra Shirsat on Tuesday.

With all the signs of an organised multi-national racket, the investigating team just in a day has tracked down two more victims who were sent to Colombo by Jadhav and Shirsat.

A team of Akola police arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday to gather details from a hotel in Mumbai, where Gawli was put up before being flown to Colombo. Both Jadhav and Shirsat accompanied him to Colombo and flew back with him.

Gawli, 35, who is married, has told the cops that Jadhav had threatened to kill him after he missed the third installment of the Rs 20,000 loan. The deal was that he would repay the loan in 12 instalments with a monthly instalment of Rs 2,000.

As he continued defaulting on repaying the loan and Jadhav's musclemen began threatening him almost every day, the moneylender made an offer - sell your kidney, get a waiver on your loan, and earn Rs 4 lakh extra. With no other option and the pressure mounting, Gawli agreed. That's when Shirsat entered the picture. He organised Gawli's passport and tourist visa. Cops suspect he was also the conduit between Jadhav and the Colombo hospital.They also believe that Jadhav and Shirsat may have trapped many more men in the same manner as Gawli.

Gawli was paid on half of the Rs 4 lakh he was promised. He has been told nothing about post-operative care and has received no medical aid in Akola so far.

Superintendent of Akola Police, CK Meena, said, "So far we have just registered a case of cheating against two as per the complaint lodged with us. Prima facie it appears to be the work of an organised syndicate, but we can't reveal anything since investigations are still in the premature stage." Meena said, "We will ascertain the role of the Nagpur based hospital and if any evidence of their involvement emerges we will take further action.

(Times of India)