By IANS
New Delhi : Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind behind the multi-million-rupee kidney racket, nabbed from Nepal, will be in custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till Feb 22 for interrogation, a court ruled Sunday.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjiv Jain sent Amit Kumar alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut to the custodial remand of the CBI till Feb 22.
The CBI sought the custody of the 43-year-old ayurvedic doctor, whom the Nepal government handed over to India Saturday evening, to conduct “thorough investigation” into the racket involving about 600 illegal kidney transplants.
In the hearing that lasted for about half an hour, the CBI contended that Amit Kumar’s interrogation would reveal the trail of millions of rupees involved in the decade-old racket.
On Feb 22 Amit Kumar would be produced before CBI’s Special Court in Ambala in Punjab.
Dubbed as “Dr Horror”, Amit Kumar was brought at the magistrate’s residence around 1.30 p.m. as a battery of mediapersons waited for him at the Tis Hazari court complex here.
CBI sources said the area around the magistrate’s residence at Gulabi Bagh in north Delhi was cordoned off and no one was allowed within a 100-metre range.
The media was kept guessing about Amit Kumar’s movements as the CBI made every effort to maintain secrecy. Security at the premises of the Tis Hazari court was also beefed up, misleading the media.
After bringing him from Kathmandu to Delhi late Saturday, CBI sleuths grilled Amit Kumar overnight at the agency’s headquarters, according to sources.
Late Saturday night, a Gurgaon police team also arrived at the CBI headquarters to share its findings in the case.
The premier investigating agency, taking cognisance of the first information report (FIR) filed by the Gurgaon police, had Friday registered a case against Amit Kumar and his brother Jeewan Kumar and two other key accused identified as Upendra Aggarwal and doctor Saraj Kumar.
While Aggarwal was arrested Jan 24 – the day the racket came to light – Jeewan and Saraj are still absconding.
Amit Kumar was booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 420 (cheating), 506 (criminal intimidation), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
He is also accused under sections 18 and 19 of the Human Organ Transplant Act, 1994.
Amit Kumar and his associates allegedly obtained kidneys illegally, often through force, from poor people and then transplanted these to needy patients who could pay exorbitant fees to the doctors conducting the illicit surgeries.
The ring, which served clients from Britain, the US, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, operated from Gurgaon, a suburban township of New Delhi.