Amit Kumar’s name had figured when police busted a similar racket in Mahim in May-June 2005, but he was not arrestedA late-night raid on a house in Gurgaon blew the lid off one of India’s biggest kidney rackets on Thursday.
The police arrested five persons in this connection, including two who claimed to be surgeons and conducted illegal transplants. The gang is believed to have sold more than 500 kidneys in the past six years.
Gurgaon police commissioner Mahender Lal said one of the doctors, identified as Upendra Kumar, ran the operation with alleged mastermind Amit Kumar. Kumar is now absconding with two other ‘doctors’, Jeevan Kumar and Saraj.
A joint team of the Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon police also raided a large house at DLF City in Gurgaon, which was a guesthouse for foreign buyers of the kidneys. Four Greeks and an NRI couple from the US were found at the guesthouse.
Laxity on the part of the Mumbai police may have allowed Amit Kumar to continue with his illegal kidney trade. Kumar’s name had figured when police busted a similar racket in Mahim in May-June 2005, but he was not arrested.
Police now say Kumar may be the same as Santosh Raut, who was arrested in a kidney racket in Khar in August 1994. But he jumped bail and wasn’t seen again.
When his photographs were flashed on TV on Friday, a former associate identified him. “He is the same man who was wanted in the Khar and Mahim cases,” he said.
Crime branch boss Rakesh Maria said police would now seek cancellation of Raut’s bail “so that the 1994 case comes to its logical conclusion”. Kumar aka Raut has been running his racket in Gurgaon with Upendra Kumar for the past eight years.
He claims to be a surgeon but is not even an MBBS, according to Haryana police. He lured foreigners through the Net and made arrangements for doctors to fly to India and oversee the transplant.
“The doctors sold between 400 and 500 kidneys in the past seven years,” said Gurgaon Police chief Mahender Lal.
“They used to remove kidneys from poor labourers and pay them between Rs50,000 and Rs1,00,000. Then they used to sell these to buyers for Rs10-15 lakh,” Lal said.
