Interpol notices against merchants of kidney

NEW DELHI: The Interpol has issued red corner notices against Amit Kumar, the mastermind behind the kidney transplant racket, and his brother Jeevan Rawat for carrying out forced kidney transplants.

The Interpol notice lists 40-year-old Amit Kumar and 36-year old Rawat as having committed crimes against “life and health” and described the nature of the crime as “organised and transnational”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had received the request from the Haryana police on Wednesday for getting red corner Interpol notices issued against Mr Kumar and Mr Rawat who are suspected to have fled to either Canada or Nepal. Mr Kumar, who is being called Dr Horror, is believed to have family living in Canada.

The agency forwarded the request to the Interpol headquarters in Lyons which immediately issued the red corner notices against the two fugitives.

The investigating agency informed Interpol that the two are wanted for allegedly carrying out over 500 forced kidney transplant operations. The CBI sent a copy of the arrest warrant issued by the Gurgaon police to Interpol.

Meanwhile, the case is yet to be transferred to the CBI for further investigations. Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had announced early this week that the government would be handing over the kidney transplant case to the CBI.

The state government has also written a letter to the Central government asking it to hand over the case to the CBI, Haryana home secretary K S Bhoria was quoted as saying. The process of transferring the case is expected to take some more time.

So far, the Haryana police have arrested 10 persons and a number of doctors, nurses and paramedics are being questioned in a bid to gauge the extent of the racket. The police have already sealed six properties and eight bank accounts belonging to Mr Kumar in Gurgaon.
Early this week Mr Ramadoss had announced at a press conference that the case would be handed over to the CBI as the case involves a number of cities ranging from Mumbai, Noida and Gurgaon. The police suspects that Rs 100 crore racket involves a large network of hospitals and laboratories.

The minister had also said that the government would bring in amendments to the National Organ Transplant Act in the coming Budget to make punishment more stringent and facilitate investigation into organ racket cases.

The government is also planning to launch a national programme on the entire matter to create awareness about the organ transplant.