Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Amit Kumar, the suspected kingpin of a scam involving illegal kidney transplants and currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail, has been summoned by a Delhi court over the Enforcement Directorate’s allegation that he has stashed black money abroad.

Special Judge P.S. Teji Friday issued summons to Amit Kumar and his brother Jeevan.

Issuing the summons, the court asked three of Amit Kumar’s aides Raghuvinder Singh, Rajiv Chanana and Sanjay Gupta to respond ot he ED’s allegations.

“Amit Kumar, presently lodged in Jaipur jail, will have to appear before the court Sep 2,” ED counsel N.K. Matta told IANS Sunday.

“Amit Kumar and his accomplices used to charge Rs.12-15 lakh, on an average, from native organ recipients and $25,000-30,000 from foreign clients,” said the ED in its compliant, filed through Matta.

The multi-million-rupee racket of illegal kidney transplants served clients from Britain, the US, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among other countries.

Amit Kumar was arrested Feb 7, 2008 from a resort in Nepal near the Indian border.

“A substantial portion of their illegally earned money has been invested in movable and immovable properties abroad,” said ED pointing that it attached their properties in Australia in June.

The ED said: “The accused were involved in an illegal racket of kidney transplantation which is punishable under Indian Penal Code, the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and committed offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.”

The ED said that Amit Kumar was not a qualified surgeon but he used to perform kidney transplant surgeries.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet in the case before a special court in Haryana’s Ambala. The agency accused Amit Kumar, his brother and other associates of setting up a hospital in Gurgaon where illegal kidney transplants were carried out from 1999 to 2008.

“Amit Kumar started the kidney transplant racket in 1994 in Mumbai, but fled from Mumbai after a case was registered against him,” said the ED, adding that he reached Jaipur where in 1995 three new cases were registered against him.

“Thereafter, he moved to Delhi where he and his brother Jeevan Kumar hatched criminal conspiracy with other accomplices and in pursuance thereof, lured innocent poor people and fraudulently removed their kidneys through surgical operations and transplanted the same in the bodies of recipients for huge monetary consideration,” the ED said.

The accused were also running a guest house in Gurgaon where recipients were kept after the transplant, the ED said.