The night manager of Hotel Rampal Palace in Jasola was stunned when policemen arrived at 1 a.m. on June 16. “They showed him a piece of paper and went inside. Within minutes, they arrested two guests from Room No. 1, cleared out their belongings, locked the room, and confiscated all the hotel’s documents related to their booking,” recounted a hotel employee who wished to remain anonymous.
“We see so many patients here. Our hotel is right behind the (Indraprastha Apollo) hospital, so many Indian and foreign patients and their caretakers come to stay here,” said the employee. “They’d been living there for 1.5 months. I would see them go for treatments and come back every day. We had taken copies of their visa, passport and medical documents, so we never doubted them,” he said.
Weeks later, hotel employees learned that the two guests from Bangladesh were among seven individuals arrested for organ trafficking.
On Tuesday, the Delhi Police announced the arrest of a 50-year-old doctor from Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi last week for her alleged involvement in an organ trafficking racket in Bangladesh and India. Dr. Vijaya Kumari, now suspended, was the sole doctor collaborating with the gang. She performed approximately 15-16 transplants between 2021 and 2023 at Noida-based Yatharth Hospital.