Kochi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) team probing the alleged multi-crore organ donation racket in Kochi has widened its investigation by summoning senior doctors from several leading private multi-speciality hospitals that were searched last month.

According to sources, the doctors being questioned are senior consultants who serve on their hospitals’ internal transplant evaluation committees. These committees examine the medical, ethical and legal aspects of organ transplant cases before forwarding them to the government-authorised district authorisation committees for final approval.

A senior consultant of a Kochi-based hospital has been questioned by the ED already, and sources said more doctors from the hospitals raided by the ED are expected to be summoned in the coming days.

“The agency is trying to determine whether members of these internal committees overlooked suspicious cases or knowingly facilitated illegal transplants. Investigators are also examining the financial transactions of the doctors and committee members to find out whether any illegal kickbacks or commissions were paid to fast-track transplant approvals,” sources said.

The ED’s money-laundering probe is based on multiple FIRs registered by the Kerala Police, which uncovered an organised inter-district human organ trafficking network allegedly led by Kasaragod-native Mohammed Najeeb Kallatra.

According to police, the racket targeted financially vulnerable people and induced them to donate kidneys for ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh, while recipients were allegedly charged ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh, with middlemen pocketing the difference.

To circumvent the legal safeguards governing organ transplantation, the syndicate allegedly used forged doctor seals, medical certificates, hospital letterheads and police No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to falsely establish an altruistic relationship between unrelated donors and recipients.

Last month, the ED’s Kochi Zonal Unit conducted simultaneous searches at major private hospitals in Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kottayam districts, seizing donor registries, transplant records and approval documents.

The agency had earlier questioned managing directors and senior administrative officials of several hospitals to verify transplant records and financial transactions. With doctors who served on internal transplant evaluation committees now under the scanner, the probe has entered a crucial phase to determine whether the alleged racket merely exploited forged documents or operated with the active involvement or deliberate negligence of insiders within hospital systems.

The ED has not officially commented on the ongoing investigation.