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Kidney transplant racket: hunt on for kingpin

Staff Reporter

Raids carried out at several places

NEW DELHI: A day after a major kidney transplant racket was unearthed in neighbouring Gurgaon, the police on Saturday raided the possible hideouts of the alleged kingpin, Amit Kumar, and his accomplices in and around the capital.

“Four teams have been constituted and raids are being carried out at several places in Gurgaon and neighbouring areas in search of Amit Kumar and two others. His house in Malviya Nagar and doctor Upender Kumar’s hospital and house in Ballabgarh have been raided. Some incriminating documents have been seized. We are hopeful of a major breakthrough soon,” said a senior police officer.

A case has also been registered against Amit Kumar and his accomplices at the Palam Vihar police station in Gurgaon under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act.

The case was registered based on the complaint of Moradabad SHO Inspector Nagphani.

Arrested

Upender Kumar, a doctor, his driver Harpal and four alleged agents — Pappu, Naushad and Gyasuddin of Meerut and Jagdish of Ballabgarh — were arrested in a raid at two houses in Gurgaon late on Thursday night. Some prospective recipients and five labourers, who had been brought for their kidneys, were also rescued during the raid.

Amit Kumar is said to have several aliases and is believed to be running the racket in Mumbai as Santosh Raut. The Mumbai police have been chasing him since 1993.

According to the police, the organ transplant racket has been in operation for over a decade and cases had been registered against them in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai.

Amit is believed to be one of the biggest players in this illegal trade and is suspected to have been operating under different names in Delhi, Guntur and Jaipur.

500 transplants

“Some 500 transplants have been carried out by the gang and more than 250 of their donors have come from the Meerut, Ghaziabad and Moradabad districts of Uttar Pradesh. Amit probably shifted his base to Gurgaon a year and a half ago,” said Police Commissioner (Gurgaon) Mahender Lal.

An altercation over money between an agent and a prospective donor blew the lid off the racket.

Vidya Prakash Jatav lodged a complaint with the Civil Lines police station of Moradabad and the information about the alleged racket was then passed on to the Gurgaon police.

Foreigners detained

PTI reports from Gurgaon:

Five foreigners who had come to India to get kidneys from the Amit Kumar network for transplantation have been detained.

Joy Mehtab (53), Sonam Joy (52), both U.S. citizens, Leonida Dayasi (56), Leonidaas Dayiasis (63) and Heleni Kitcocy (53), all residents of Greece, were taken into custody from a house in DLF city, Commissioner of Police Mohinder Lal said.

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