Former Union Minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss on September 3 demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the organ transplant scam in Tamil Nadu.

In a statement, Ramadoss citing a news report said that at a time when several Indian patients were waiting for organ transplant, organs harvested from a person declared brain dead in Salem were transplated to foreign nationals admitted in two hospitals.

Ramadoss said a Keralite youth, P. Manikandan, was declared brain dead by a private hospital in Salem after he met with an accident in Tamil Nadu in May 2018. The PMK leader said the family members of Manikandan was forced to agree for organ harvest by the hospital officials. The relatives of the deceased then complained to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who then wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami who instituted a probe.

As per the probe report, the heart and lung of Manikandan were harvested. The heart, which was orginally meant for a Ukranine national, was transplated to a Lebanese national in a private hospital and the lung was transplated to an Israeli patient, Ramadoss said.

Although there were Indian patients who were ahead in the wait list for organ transplant, the two harvested organs were given to foreign patients. Ramadoss said a senior government official had directed transplant of an organ to a foreign national. According to the PMK leader during the past one year alone, 95 foreign nationals got 127 organs violating the organ donation/transplant norms.

Ramadoss said, the probe report by putting the blame on two outsourced staff Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN) has provided an escape route for others involved in this scam. He said on an average Rs 12 crore was charged from foreigners for organ transplants. According to Ramadoss, the scam running into hundreds of crore was being perpertrated in Tamil Nadu.