Rajkumar Rao ran Ponzi scheme to lure donors

T. Rajkumar Rao, the alleged kingpin of the kidney trade racket in the city, during interrogation on Thursday revealed vital information to the Delhi police after he was brought to the city on transit remand from Kolkata.

The Delhi police has also asked the owner of a famous Mumbai hotel, who is a recipient of a donated kidney, to join its investigation.

“Most of the recipients of kidney were the businessmen and they have paid hefty amount for donated kidneys. In every deal, Rao pays only `2-4 lakh to the donors and rest of the money was shared among all of the associates,” said a police officer. According to source close to the investigation, T. Rajkumar Rao was reportedly running a Ponzi scheme under which he used to offer incentives to kidney donors. He also lured kidney donors, in a bid to get more incentives, to get potential donors.

“Rao is very clever, he had never revealed his address to any of his associates and never left any clue to get caught. To avoid leaving any tracks, he rarely used flights to travel. Most of the time, he hired a cab and travelled by road. Even three days ago, he hired a cab from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to Kolkata,” said a police official.

When Rao got the information about the kidney racket being busted in the city, he disposed of his two mobile phones, which he had used continuously, in order to delete evidence. However, he was supremely confident that the police would never be able to track his house in Kolkata.

“We could have got vital information about the racket from his mobile phones. But to avoid getting tracked by police, he disposed of his mobile phones. He use to contact his associates on social media applications installed on mobile phones to avoid being tracked by security agencies,” the police officer said.

“He was living a lavish life in Kolkata. He had hired two cabs permanently — one for his wife and other for his children. He used to spend an enormous amount of money every month to maintain his lavish lifestyle,” said a source close to the police investigation.

To avoid any monitoring on social media, he had even opened two Facebook profiles with fake names. “We have demanded details of his Facebook IDs and chats to get more clues in the case,” said the officer.

“He is just the tip of the iceberg. This racket might just not be restricted to a single hospital, there could be many others involved in the kidney trade. The case is under investigation,” added the senior police officer.