By Purushottam P. Khatri

Kathmandu, Oct. 17: Police Wednesday detained five persons, including chief executive officer of Nidan Hospital for their alleged involvement in the illegal kidney trade and transplant.
Nidan Hospital CEO Bipendra Pradhan, a permanent resident of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-26 and temporarily residing at Brihat Apartment in Nagarjun Municipality, was arrested for transplanting the kidney by producing a fake donor.
The legal document prepared for kidney transplant by the hospital was found forged after the third person, whose name was not included in the list of the real donor, was found to have donated the kidney to one Shanker Lal Lama, Superintendent of Police (SP) Govinda Thapaliya at Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau said.
Lama is a permanent resident of Doramba-3 of Ramechhap district and is temporarily residing in Swoyambhu, Kathmandu.
Along with CEO Pradhan, police also detained section officer of Lalitpur District Administration Office Ram Chandra Ale of Konjyosom Rural Municipality-2 of Lalitpur district, Dr. Rajesh Panta of Nidan Hospital, Kumud Kumar Bhattarai, legal officer of the hospital and Shanker Lal Lama.
A special squad deployed under the command of DSP Raj Kumar Silwal detained the officials from different places on Wednesday.
SP Thapaliya said that the hospital and family members of the kidney receiver first prepared kidney transplant document pasting the donator and receiver’s all details of three generations and their photographs.
But later, the document was tampered by altering the photo of the real kidney donator and replacing it with a photograph of a third person, matching the real donator. Photoshop technology was used to tamper the photo of the third person so as to make his face and dresses look like the real donator’s, SP Thapaliya said.
“We have detained the hospital’s officials and the kidney receiver after the hospital was found doing illegal work by tampering the documents and taking out kidney of the third persons whose family relations could not be established to do so,” SP Thapaliya said.
Only the family members having their three generation relations and relatives having blood/bone relation can donate the kidney in Nepal.
The police have kept the victim’s (kidney donator) name confidential citing privacy. We have been investigating into other sides of the incident as there might have involved a broker to manage this third person to donate the kidney instead of a genuine donator.
“We have rescued the donator (victim) from Bhaktapur three days ago, and told us reality related to the incident,” he said.
The victim told us that he was assured of providing a hefty amount, but, he got Rs. 300,000 in his bank account. SP Thapaliya said that the victim (kidney donator) fairly literate, and could not write his name.