Kidney scam: Kingpin to be produced in Delhi court

New Delhi, Feb 22: The alleged mastermind in a kidney transplant racket, Dr. Amit Kumar, will appear before a Delhi court today.

Amit, who was produced at the residence of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain on February 10, was remanded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till February 22. The CBI has charged him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon), 342 (wrongful confinement), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). The 40-year-old tainted doctor was flown from Kathmandu on February 9 by a three-member CBI team.

He was arrested in Chitwan in Nepal on February 7 and is wanted by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police in connection with an inter-state and international kidney transplant scam.

On February 18, a court here had remanded Dr. Jeevan Kumar, the brother and key aide of Amit, to CBI custody till February 29.The CBI has claimed that Jeevan has been involved in management of alleged illegal kidney transplant surgeries.

Jeevan had been absconding since January 24 when the racket was busted in Gurgaon. The Interpol had issued a Red Corner notice against him and Amit on February 1. With Jeevan's arrest, the authorities claimed to have detained all the four key accused in the multi-crore racket. The other two are Dr Upendra Aggarwal and Dr Saraj Kovid.

Amit and others have been charged under several sections, including violation of the Human Organ Transplant Act. They have been accused of having forced or duped around 500 people, mostly from the underprivileged sections of society, into donating their kidneys.

ANI