Kidney racket kingpin arrested

[reorg]

Source: The Hindu

Kidney racket kingpin arrested
Ameet Dhakal

Kathmandu: The alleged kingpin in a multi-crore kidney transplant racket in India, Dr. Amit Kumar, was nabbed near a town in southern Nepal on Thursday.

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Dr. Kumar, dubbed “Dr. Horror,” had lots of foreign and Nepalese currencies in his possession at the time of the arrest, the officer said, adding that the doctor would be brought here on Friday from Hetauda, where he is now under detention.
Interpol notice

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The doctor, who is believed to have conducted over 500 illegal operations in a decade, was wanted by police in Haryana and some other States.

An Interpol Red Corner Notice was issued against him and his brother Jeevan on February 1 after the racket, having inter-State and international ramifications, came to light on January 24.

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Read more: http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/08/stories/2008020857610100.htm

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from The Hindu, Opinion page:
"Over the last two decades, scandals involving kidney commerce have broken out with depressing regularity in various Indian cities such as Mumbai, Noida, Amritsar, Bangalore, and Chennai. What sets the Gurgaon venture apart is the scale of the operation and hard-core criminality in the modes of procuring kidneys for profit. Networking at least three hospitals, five diagnostic centres, four doctors, 20 paramedics, and an unknown number of middlemen, Amit Kumar, the mastermind, oversaw a cottage industry-sized operation that performed approximately 500 illegal transplants over the last few years. Not content with luring innocent poor folk with offers of cash, he and his henchman used naked threats and force — sometimes at gunpoint — to coerce ‘donors’ on to the operating table. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is taking charge of the case, has its job cut out. Dr. Kumar has been arrested in Nepal but the investigators might have to go after a ring suspected to be active in at least five States and also in other countries, since a fair number of the clients are foreigners."

http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/08/stories/2008020859121000.htm

Aljazeera report: Indian kidney transplant doctor arrested - 8 Feb 08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur7WRvh_un4