The Hindu : Front Page : ‘Kidney racket mastermind had links abroad and with Bollywood’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 03, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

‘Kidney racket mastermind had links abroad and with Bollywood’

Ashok Kumar

– PHOTO: PTI

DETAINED: Ribika, a nurse working in a hospital in Haryana, is the latest catch for the police investigating the kidney racket.

GURGAON/NEW DELHI/MORADABAD: Investigations into the multi-crore kidney racket have revealed that prime accused Amit Kumar had pumped money into several hospitals outside India and even acted in and produced a number of ‘B’ and ‘C’ category Bollywood movies.

“Physician Upender told us during interrogation that Amit Kumar had pumped money into as many as 150 hospitals in Europe and Gulf countries. Upender does not have detailed information about Amit’s international connections and does not know the names of these hospitals. The interrogation so far has revealed that Amit had a large number of foreign clients visiting him for transplants. Most of them came from Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (Moradabad) Prem Prakash, speaking to The Hindu over phone on Saturday.

“Dr. Amit” also had a keen interest in acting and is said to have produced and acted in several ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade films. “He is learnt to have acted in movies like ‘Kanoon Ki Janjeer’, ‘Khooni Raat’ and ‘Aag’. According to investigation so far, he also produced some of these movies. Further interrogation is on to know more about his Bollywood connections,” said Mr. Prakash.

The police officer said that most of the police teams which had fanned out to Noida, Ghaziabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir during the week had since returned. The last person to have been arrested by the Moradabad police in the case is a doctor, K. K. Aggarwal, who was held at Alwar in Rajasthan on Friday.

Sources said Upender had told the police about Amit’s close association with some politicians and bureaucrats too. Their names have been withheld for the time being as this information is being cross-examined.

Meanwhile, four persons -- including a hospital nurse, Linda -- who had been arrested for their alleged connections with the kidney transplant racket have been sent to 14 days’ judicial custody by a court in Gurgaon.

Linda, a resident of Manipur, had worked for Amit Kumar for over a year in 2005-06 and then left the job in mid-2006 to join Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi. But she continued to work for Amit as a part-timer and was paid Rs.25,000 to 30,000 a month. Along with Linda, two brothers, Ramesh and Suresh, who worked as cooks, and Amit’s driver Harpal were arrested this past Thursday. After two days in police custody, they were remanded to judicial custody on Saturday by Magistrate Ranjana Aggarwal.

In a related development, another nurse, Ribika, was detained by the Haryana police on Saturday. She had worked at Upender’s hospital in Ballabgarh for over two months and witnessed transplant operations being conducted by Amit, sources said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page