Behind India’s kidney rackets, an acute shortage of organs

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Editor's note: He called himself Rancho, after the character in the 2009 Hindi film “3 Idiots”. It’s how he explained away his performing dozens of kidney transplants when he only had the qualifications of a lab technician. “I’m not well educated,” he’d say, “but I’m well read and learn fast.” The police were impressed with Kuldeep Ray Vishwakarma. Inspector Bharat Lal Meena, who arrested him earlier this month, has fond memories of the four days Kuldeep spent in police custody. “Some people have the gift of the gab,” he says. “Kuldeep was one of them.” He was one of 11 people the Delhi police arrested in the first week of June. He was a model detainee who’d managed to quickly charm the cops, so they wouldn’t beat him up. “He said he tends to forget things if someone uses force on him,” says Meena with a laugh. That said, the police did glean crucial information on his operations. Kuldeep ran a kidney transplant racket in the neighbouring Sonipat district of Haryana. His “agents” would prowl slums and homeless shelters, lurk outside temples …