In early November 2025, B.Yamuna (29) from Visakhapatnam left home to visit Araku Valley with friends. Yamuna, who separated from her husband and lived with her parents, used to support her family by working at a grocery shop in Madhurwada.
However, her family’s world shattered on November 11, when Yamuna’s brother Nagendra received a call from an unknown number. that his sister had died in a hospital in Tirupati And asked him to immediately collect his body. Nagendra’s initial reaction was shock, followed by denial, but when he dialed the same number again, the caller confirmed the sad news.
Nagendra, who works as an AC mechanic, also runs a small shop in Boddapalem in Anandapuram mandal in Visakhapatnam, while his father Narasinga Rao runs a paan shop. They tried hard to verify the information, but the caller did not provide any further details. The family immediately contacted a distant relative with political connections and soon the information reached Anandapuram police station in Visakhapatnam, which alerted the Tirupati police.
While Yamuna’s father and brother were on their way to Tirupati, the Annamayya police busted Andhra Pradesh’s biggest organ-trafficking racket, operating from the Global Multi-Specialty Hospital at Madanapalle in Annamayya district, and arrested several key suspects. Investigation soon revealed how Yamuna found herself at Tirupati Hospital, 900 kilometers away from her hometown, instead of being headed to Araku Valley.
According to police records, Yamuna believed her financial struggles would be over after she received the promised sum of ₹8 lakh from a “paid kidney donation process” – she hoped the money would help her send her children to study in an English medium school.
According to investigators, hospital records show that Yamuna had gone into a coma after one of her kidneys was removed. Whether he died on the operation table or during his alleged transfer to a hospital in Tirupati is still under investigation.
Yamuna’s untimely death has exposed the racket involving government doctors, hospital insiders, visiting surgeons, fraud networks and how vulnerable individuals and families were being exploited.
A modest town hospital in Madanapalle emerged as the center of an interstate criminal operation that preyed on the vulnerable, operating in the shadows, where drugs, money and the illegal organ trade merged into a corporate-like syndicate.
Investigation revealed that another woman from Visakhapatnam had also undergone the same process through the same racket at around the same time. However, she went missing after Yamuna’s death and subsequent police involvement. Preliminary investigation revealed that Yamuna’s kidney was being taken to Goa for transplant. What happened to the second woman’s kidney and how much she was paid is under investigation.
According to reports, a group of middlemen had approached Yamuna months ago, who were aware of its financial struggles. Yamuna, struggling to make ends meet, became an easy target. The brokers promised him financial relief in exchange for his kidney.
A police officer revealed that the brokers told Yamuna, “Kidney donation is absolutely safe. With one kidney, life will be normal. The recipient is a rich businessman from Mumbai and Goa. He will take care of you in the future, and you can also get a good job in Mumbai or Dubai. Immediately after the operation, you will get ₹8 lakh.”
Hoping for a better future for her children, Yamuna reached Madanapalle and, using false documents, became a willing donor, violating the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA 1994).
According to reports, after her death as a result of the operation, the carefully constructed mask collapsed. Hospital officials tried their best to cover it up and informed her family that she died due to “unexpected complications” and demanded that they take the body home immediately.
Suspicious of the entire episode, the family demanded a post-mortem, which revealed illegal kidney removal, which contradicted hospital records, which cited post-surgery complications as the cause of death. Under the guidance of Madanapalle police, the family filed a formal complaint, bringing months of covert illegal operations under investigation.
A horrifying picture emerged of an organized kidney racket exploiting vulnerable communities. The Global Multi-Specialty Hospital in Madanapalle had reportedly become a secret organ transplant centre. Police discovered donors recruited under false identities, and video evidence showed that brokers were driving them to restricted areas. Hospital logs, patient records and administrative entries were full of glaring inconsistencies.
Following the revelations, district and police officials raided the hospital, sealed it and seized all documents and digital materials. The forensic teams joined a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is now investigating the entire network.
Police have arrested eight people so far. These include A1, hospital owner Dr Anjaneyulu and a senior government doctor serving as District Coordinator of Health Services (DCHS), as well as two dialysis technicians from government hospitals at Madanapalle and Kadiri. Police also identified the involvement of a senior consultant surgeon from Bengaluru, who is believed to have performed the removal of Yamuna’s kidney. The call data records of all the accused including the brokers are being investigated. Investigators suspect that many more vulnerable donors may have been brought to Madanapalle under similar circumstances. Some people may be suffering silently, while others may go undiagnosed.
The case has shaken Madanapalle and created a stir in Visakhapatnam, where kidney racket cases are not new. Social activists say slum dwellers and low-income communities in Visakhapatnam and tribal settlements in northern Andhra districts are often targeted because of the financial crisis.
Pragada Vasu of the Association for Tribal and Urban Development (AUTD), who works extensively in urban slums, stressed the urgent need for strict monitoring. “Many families depend on daily wages. Their income fluctuates, and unexpected expenses push them into a cycle of debt, making them vulnerable,” he said.
Organ brokers take advantage of these vulnerabilities. They promise huge sums of money while claiming that the procedure is safe. Most donors receive only a small amount upfront, he said, with the promise of full payment after the surgery – which is rarely met.
Visakhapatnam’s connection with the kidney racket goes back years. In 2022, Vinay Kumar of Vambe Colony was promised ₹8 lakh but received only ₹2 lakh after surgery, leading to a complaint that led to the arrest of medical professionals in Pendurthi. In 2019, Shraddha Hospital near Collectorate Junction was closed after several illegal kidney surgeries were exposed. A doctor from Bengaluru and several others were arrested.
Yamuna’s case is not just an unfortunate incident, but the “tip of the iceberg” where poverty collides with criminal networks thriving in the illegal organ trade. His story highlights the dangerous intersection of poverty, lack of awareness, medical malpractice and organized crime. Her brother, Nagendra, and her mother, Suramma, fail to understand why Yamuna hid the truth. Nagendra said, “Crime is killing me every moment. I failed to recognize its problem.”
After the incident, there was fear and anger in Boddapalem for a week, but now life is slowly returning to normal. However, the threat still remains – brokers may still be lurking nearby, waiting for their next victim.
Mala Mahanadu state president Yamla Sudarshan, who met the grieving family, condemned the incident, calling it an “attack on the dignity of the poor” and demanded a judicial inquiry into the “dangerous erosion of medical ethics”.
As investigators probe further, they uncover layers of an interstate network, leading to suspicions that donors are being recruited not only from northern Andhra but also from the urban slums of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and major metropolitan cities.
An SIT official said that in cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, there is no dearth of kidney recipients who are willing to pay ₹70 lakh to ₹1 crore per organ. “The tragedy is that 90% of the victims get barely 5% of the amount. The game always favors the syndicate. The irony is that the recipients also sometimes find themselves cheated. If anything goes wrong, neither party dares to go to the police. Personal embarrassment is exploited by the network,” he said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Madanapalle) S. Mahendra said The Hindu That the investigation has reached an important stage. He said, “No one will be able to escape from the kidney racket. We have already arrested several key accused. The search for A2, a surgeon from Bengaluru, is on. Our teams are also looking for important leads in other states including Goa. If the investigation progresses or new avenues open up, we are ready for any challenge.”
