Aligarh: Having evaded arrest for a couple of years, Dr. Devendra Sharma, who is also referred to as 'Doctor Death' has been nabbed by Delhi Police. The personnel of Crime Branch arrested him from Dausa in Rajasthan where he was hiding in an ashram disguised as a priest.
This 67-year-old Ayurveda practitioner was convicted for running an illegal kidney transplant racket and was involved in killings in the decade of 1990s and 2000s. Sharma is known to have illegally removed the kidneys of more than 125 people and killed more than 100 people.
He had jumped parole after coming out of Tihar Jail on June 9, 2023. He had been granted parole for two months. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Aditya Gautam, he had jumped parole in 2020 also when he was finally nabbed after six months.
A resident of Puraini village in Charra area of Aligarh, Sharma is said to have studied in Bulandshahr and he later got a BAMS degree from Patna. He went on to open clinics in Aligarh and Rajasthan. He had lost his father Devkinandan Sharma 18 years ago and his mother about 55 years ago.
A resident of Puraini village Ram Veer Sharma disclosed that Sharma was defrauded to a tune of Rs 11 lakh in 1994 while applying for a cooking gas dealership and this pushed him into the world of crime. He then opened fake gas agencies in Charra and Rampur besides forming a gang to loot trucks. His fake agencies were discovered and he was imprisoned. "It was then that the villagers came to know about his crime for the first time," said Ram Veer.
Sources said that after being released on bail, Sharma joined a kidney transplant gang and he took money in advance from about 200 people in the name of providing kidneys for transplant. Between 1998 and 2004, he carried out transplants illegally along with one Dr. Amit. Sources added that this illegal activity was carried out with the help of fake documents in the hospitals of Delhi and Gurugram. He used to get around Rs 5 to Rs 7 lakh for each transplant.
Sharma used to take taxi drivers to a rented house and remove their kidneys. After this he used to kill them and throw their bodies in the Hazra canal which is full of crocodiles. It is said that Sharma was obsessed with murder and used to especially target taxi drivers. He would book a taxi and then go on to kill the driver.
No one in his village is surprised at his arrest. Ram Veer said that he had left Puraini 33 years ago and had never returned. “The Police came to look for him from time to time,” he said. Sharma’s brother, Surendra Sharma is a Sub Inspector in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and is posted at Kasimpur Power House.
While living in Rajasthan, he had developed political connections. He had opened a fake clinic called ‘Janta Clinic’ in Dausa district and had cheated people of Rs 11 lakh in the name of installing mobile towers.
Sharma’s name figures in the list of history sheeters of Charra Police Station since 1994. Superintendent of Police (Rural) Amrit Jain said, “The first case of murderous attack was registered against him in 1994 in Barla Police Station. After this, the list of FIRs kept increasing.” After being released on parole from Delhi he had gone on to sell his seven bighas of ancestral land.
