A Kochi‑based man has been accused of running an international kidney racket allegedly trafficked poor Indians not just to Iran, but also to Tajikistan for illegal transplants, latest National Investigation Agency (NIA) case records show.
Court documents accessed by NDTV reveal that investigators have now recorded a Tajikistan link in a case earlier understood as centered on transplants carried out in Iran.
The case began on May 19, 2024, when Nedumbassery police registered FIR, alleging that an organised racket was flying out Indian donors to Iran for kidney removal and transplant.
The probe was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency, which on August 17, 2024 filed its final report against three accused (A2, A3 and A4), while the first accused Kochi resident Madhu Jayakumar remained on the run.
According to the NIA, Madhu and three co‑accused targeted people from poor financial backgrounds, inducing them with promises of money and then exploiting and threatening them before trafficking them abroad.
Investigators say the donors' kidneys were transplanted to rich recipients under life‑threatening conditions, with the accused allegedly amassing huge illegal wealth in cash, crypto assets and property.
Madhu was finally arrested on November 7, and remanded to judicial custody in the NIA Special Court in Ernakulam. On November 12, the court granted the NIA seven days' police custody of Madhu, during which, according to the agency, he disclosed the names of 27 recipients who underwent kidney transplantat surgeries in Iran through him, and 11 new donors who lost their kidneys in the process.
It is in this subsequent phase of investigation that the new Tajikistan angle surfaced. The NIA has recorded that in 2025, two persons from Odisha were flown to Tajikistan, where their kidneys were allegedly transplanted to rich recipients arranged through Madhu's network.
The agency says Madhu used his contacts to identify wealthy kidney patients urgently needing transplants and matched them with desperate donors, sending them to Iran and Tajikistan and routing the proceeds through an entity referred to as "Stemma Club" and multiple bank accounts before converting the money into Bitcoin and USDT.
To map this alleged financial and international network, investigators have sought to confront Madhu with bank statements of his accounts and those of his relatives, along with images and videos pulled from the mobile phones of the other accused. Madhu was granted custodial interrogation for three days on December 15.
The court order notes that the NIA is using these materials to trace more victims and recipients and to probe his suspected links with other national and international kidney racketeers. The court had observed that the alleged offence was "very serious" and that Madhu was prima facie the "kingpin" of the kidney transplantation racket.
They face charges under Sections 120B, 370, 465 and 471 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
