New Delhi: The Telangana Police have arrested four people in Hyderabad for allegedly altering fingerprints through surgery to smuggle people to Kuwait for jobs.
A special operation was carried out earlier this week by police officials from Malkajgiri and Ghatkesar, which led to the arrest of Gajjalakondugari Naga Muneswar Reddy (36), Sagabala Venkat Ramana (39), Bovilla Shiva Shankar Reddy (25) and Rendla Rama Krishna Reddy (38).
Of the four arrested, two were accused of carrying out the illegal operation and the rest were clients who underwent surgeries to re-enter Kuwait after having been deported earlier.
According to a statement released by the police, Gajjalakondugari was a radiographer at Krishna Diagnostics in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa, when he met someone who underwent a surgery in Sri Lanka to go back to Kuwait after being deported once for working there illegally.
It was then that Gajjalakondugari hatched a plan to run the ‘fingerprint surgery’ racket, along with Ramana, an anesthetic technician, the statement added.
How was the surgery carried out
During the raid, the police had seized four cell phones, antibiotics and a medical kit used for conducting ‘fingerprint surgeries’.
Police said that the accused used to charge Rs 25,000 for performing the operation, which involved slicing the upper layer of the fingertip, removing some part of the tissue and then re-stitching it.
In a month or two, the wound would heal and there would be a slight difference in the fingerprint pattern that lasted a year.
After their fingerprints were altered, clients used to change their addresses, get new Aadhaar cards and apply for fresh visas to go to Kuwait.
According to police, the accused committed their first surgery in Rajasthan on two people for Rs 25,000 each. In May, they performed surgeries on six more people in Kerala.
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