Interpol gets into act as cops widen probe net

New Delhi, February 1 Red corner notices have been issued against kidney racket kingpin Amit Kumar and his brother Jeevan. Interpol issued the notices on Friday amid apprehensions that the two have fled the country.

Meanwhile, a special team of UP Police today arrived in Jammu and Kashmir to hunt for Amit Kumar’s wife Poonam Saini, with whom the kidney kingpin has had two children. Originally from Jammu, Poonam is an NRI now settled in Canada, police sources said.

Earlier in the day Interpol, responding to a request from Indian authorities, said it was believed that nearly 500 people were forcibly operated on over the past eight years and their kidneys transplanted to foreign patients in a “secret operating theatre”. Amit, 40, and brother Jeevan, 36, are wanted for illegal transplant of kidneys, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.

The request for an Interpol red corner notice to track down the accused came after investigations indicated that Amit and Jeevan had left India via Nepal and were possibly hiding in Canada. Amit is believed to have at least four passports and uses several aliases — Amit Chaudhary, Amit Purshottam, Suresh and Rajesh among others.

Documents found during the investigations show that dozens of people, including some from Greece, the US and Canada, had been contacted by the accused offering kidney transplants.

Significantly, while a team from Gurgaon Police is still in Moradabad, waiting for the local cops to finish their probe before questioning Dr Upender, a UP Police team from Moradabad reached Jammu today. Police sources said their hunt for clues about Amit Kumar’s second wife Poonam began with the belief that she was in the know of the racket. The police from across all three states, though, are still not certain whether she was part of the racket.

The team raided various places in Jammu today.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Moradabad, Prem Prakash told Newsline over telephone that they are looking for any clue regarding Poonam or Amit’s whereabouts that could lead to their arrest.

The UP Police has also reached Joshimath and winter games resort of Auli in Uttarakhand, hunting for clues regarding ‘Dr Kidney’ Amit Kumar’s whereabouts.

Though Amit and Jeevan are believed to have escaped to Canada, Pushkar Singh Sailal said their UP counterparts sounded them about the possibility of the duo being in the hill state. “Moradabad police sounded us that they could be hiding anywhere between Haridwar and Joshimath in Chamoli district. It is a vast area but there was no specific information,” M A Ganapathy, Inspector-General (Law & Order), Uttarakhand Police, said.

At Ground Zero, Gurgaon, meanwhile, JCP Manjeet Singh Ahlawat said, “We are investigating all leads revealed by arrested persons so far — the nurse from RML Hospital, Amit Kumar’s driver Harpal, two cooks Ramesh and Suresh, Amit’s sister in-law Pooja, and her driver Umesh.”

On Friday, the Gurgaon police team carried out three raids in Moradabd but was unable to find further leads.