The fall, rise & fall of kidney racket kingpin
ORIGINALLY FROM MAHARASHTRA, KUMAR HAD SHOT TO NATIONAL LIMELIGHT WITH THE GURGAON KIDNEY RACKET CASE IN 2008
DEHRADUN: He did everything possible to evade arrest—used aliases, continually changed places of work across states and burnt all incriminating documents — but law finally got the better of Dr Am it Kumar, who allegedly masterminded the kidney rack et that was being run in Dehradun — and years earlier, in Gurugram.
Amit and his brother Jeevan Kumar, also a doctor, were arrested by Dehradun police fromPanchkula inHaryanalate on Friday. He was preparing to escape to Nepal. The police con- fiscated six mobile phones and ₹33 lakh from his car. His son, also a doctor, is still absconding.
Kumar was arrested many times, jumped bail and went absconding in several cases over the past two decades, but always began his‘ business’ of illegal kidney extraction sa fresh each time, thanks to his strong network of touts and middlemen who lined up kidney donors and recipients from different parts of the country and even abroad.
Police said he had been booked in many cases in Mumbai, Guntur and Anand apart from those registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the enforcement directorate.
Originally from Maharashtra and known by aliases including Dr Am it Kumar, Dr Santos hR aut and Dr Amit Raut, the kidney racket kingpin had shot to national limelight with the Gurgaon kidney racket case in 2008.
He fled to Nepal, but was later extradited by CBI.
In 2013, aC BI special court had convicted Amit to seven years of rigorous imprisonment besides slapping a fine of ₹60 lakh on him. He got bail a year later, but continued kidney extractions in Guru gram, even while he was on bail, through his agent Javed Khan from Mumbai (who was arrested by the Dehradun police on Sep 11).
He was rearrested in connection with another kidney racket case in Gujarat in March last year, wherein he escaped police custody while being escorted to Anand from New Delhi in August 2016.