From killer to 'priest': 2 years after jumping parole, Delhi's ‘Dr Death', involved in murder, kidney transplant racket, held from ashram in Rajasthan

Time of India

21-05-2025

Dr. Devender Sharma, infamously known as 'Doctor Death,' was rearrested after jumping parole, Delhi police reported on Monday. Sharma, 67, was found living as a priest in Rajasthan.
NEW DELHI: Nearly two years after he jumped parole,
Dr Devender Sharma
, notorious as '
Doctor Death
', was on Monday arrested by Delhi police from an ashram in Rajasthan's Dausa, where he was living as a 'priest'.
Sharma (67) was involved in the abduction and murders of truck and taxi drivers in Delhi and other states in the early 2000s, and was also convicted of his role in a
kidney racket
.
First arrested in 2004, he was granted a two-month parole on June 9, 2023, but went into hiding instead of returning to prison.
DCP (crime) Aditya Gautam said on Tuesday that a police team launched an investigation across several locations, including Aligarh, Jaipur and Delhi.
Over a period of six months, the cops explored possible hiding spots, including Agra and Prayagraj. Finally, they traced Sharma to an ashram in Dausa, where he was living under a false identity, posing as a priest.
From 1998 to 2004, 'Dr Death' involved in kidney transplants
A native of Aligarh, UP, Sharma graduated with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) degree in 1984. His father worked for a pharmaceutical company in Siwan, Bihar.
Sharma later set up and ran a clinic in Rajasthan for 11 years. In 1994, he faced a major financial setback after being defrauded of Rs 11 lakh in a gas dealership scam. By 1995, he himself allegedly started a fake gas agency to recover his losses.
Between 1998 and 2004, Sharma allegedly became involved in
illegal kidney transplants
, working closely with a person named Dr Amit. He allegedly facilitated more than 125 illegal kidney transplants, earning between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh per procedure. Sharma earlier told police that as an intermediary, he arranged kidney donors for Dr Amit.
In 2004, Sharma was arrested in Gurgaon in connection with the kidney racket. Around the same time, he and his gang were also allegedly involved in the abduction and serial killing of taxi drivers and disposing of their bodies in the crocodile-infested Hazara canal in UP's Kasganj.
Each vehicle sold in the grey market in UP earned them between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000.
Sharma was charged with the murder of 21 truck and taxi drivers and sentenced to life imprisonment in seven cases across Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana. He was also sentenced to death by a Gurgaon court for the murder of a taxi driver. Sharma confessed to killing more than 50 people. His horrific crimes led to his wife and children abandoning him.
In 2020, Sharma was granted a 20-day parole but jumped bail, staying at large for seven months before being apprehended in Delhi. In June 2023, he was again granted parole for two months, but failed to return to prison.