Thaindian News

(Lead)

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) In what could be a final piece in solving the illegal kidney racket that has rocked the city and the country, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Jeewan Raut, the fugitive brother and aide of kingpin Amit Kumar, Sunday from his hideout here. CBI spokesman G. Mohanty told IANS that Jeewan, who was suspected to have fled to Nepal, would be produced before a city court Monday.

“We have not yet decided in which court Jeewan will be produced. We will do so within 24 hours,” he said.

The Interpol had issued a Red Corner notice against Jeevan, who was on the run since the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh Police busted the multi-million kidney transplant racket operating from Gurgaon Jan 24.

Jeewan allegedly helped his brother Amit alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut escape from the country. With the latest arrest, the CBI has been able to trace down all four key accused in the racket - Amit, Upendra Aggarwal, Saraj Kovid and Jeewan.

After taking over the case Feb 8, the investigating agency was hunting for Jeewan, who along with the other three accused has been booked under various Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 420 (cheating), 506 (criminal intimidation), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

They are also accused under sections 18 and 19 of the Human Organ Transplant Act, 1994.

The police had also arrested Jeewan’s wife Pooja Singhal for allegedly helping him give the police a slip by dropping him “somewhere in south Delhi”. She is currently in judicial custody.

At the heart of the illegal kidney transplant racket was Amit, who allegedly carried out hundreds of kidney transplants along with fellow doctors that included his brother Jeewan, and cashed in on the huge demand-supply gap for this vital body organ.

Forty-three-year-old Amit was nabbed after a fortnight’s hunt in Nepal Feb 10 and Saraj, a Delhi-based doctor, surrendered before the Gurgaon court the next day. The Gurgaon police arrested Upendra the day the racket was busted.

The two - Jeewan and Amit - would call themselves doctors even though they had only degrees in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian herb-based system of medicine, and none of them was a qualified surgeon.

Using persuasion, trickery and threats, occasionally at gunpoint, they forced poor patients as well as labourers to part with one of their kidneys for a pittance, which were then sold off to wealthy clients from India and abroad at huge profits.

The ring served clients from Britain, the US, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from their Gurgaon cilinc.