NEW DELHI: The Gurgaon kidney racket is getting murkier, if a key aide of the kingpin of the criminal enterprise is to be believed.

In a series of sensational disclosures today, Dr Upendra Aggarwal, key aide of the racket’s kingpin Amit Kumar, told reporters that Kumar had invested in almost 150 hospitals in Europe and the Gulf, which may have been referring transplant patients to his Gurgaon clinic.  That explains why there has been a steady flow of foreign patients to his clinic. Police estimate the number at 500 people, mostly foreigners who have come for transplants to the Gurgaon clinic in recent years.

Dr Aggarwal, now in police custody, said Kumar also had close links to a Haryana MP and the Dawood Ibrahim gang, and had invested in the Indian real estate market. Kumar, he added, also bribed Delhi police officers when they were booked for illegal organ trade in the past.

A woman friend of Kumar, and his lawyer friends are now under the scanner of the Gurgaon police. Bulbul Kataria is being questioned at an undisclosed location in Gurgaon. “Questioning her will throw light on the kidney racket in Delhi and Gurgaon,” a police officer said. Kataria says she is an insurance consultant and had won beauty pageant some years ago.   

The kidney racket is estimated to have a turnover of over a billion rupees before it was busted on January 24. Police officers investigating the scam claim that Kumar’s mobile phone records show that he left his nursing home in sector 23 much before the Muradabad police raided it along with Upendra who was first arrested after the police blew the lid of the racket.

Police sources also say that Kumar had come in contact with D company when he was running kidney racket in Nepal. It is believed he even helped Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Shakeel set up hospitals in Nepal.
 
The police have also found that Kumar was fond of acting too and had even set up a small company to produce C-grade movies in Bollywood. “His friend Bulbul Kataria is being questioned about different things including his investments because she is a insurance consultant who helped him in business,” said a senior police officer.

Police in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are continuing with their investigations of those in custody. Those being questioned by the Gurgaon police are a British and a US-based NRI couple. Police sources said the recipients and other arrested are “reluctant” to come out with the details of the entire racket. The police is questioning the kidney recipients staying in Amit’s hospital. “They know that Amit Kumar was illegally transplanting kidneys but won’t reveal how they came in touch with him,” said a police officer.

Among others who have been arrested is a nurse working with the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.  Linda was a full-time staff at Amit Kumar’s illegal hospital before she joined government service. She continued to work part-time with the illegal kidney racket. Linda had told her interrogators that Amit, his brother and two more doctors used to be involved in kidney transplant.

Linda, a resident of Manipur, was arrested at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on Thursday. “Linda has worked for kidney racket kingpin for over a year in 2005-06. She was paid Rs.25,000 to 30,000 a month. She left the job in mid-2006 to join Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital as a staff nurse, but continued to work for the accused as a part-timer,” said the officer.

Till date, UP and Haryana police have arrested eight people who had links to the racket. Two Nepalese nationals — Suresh and Ramesh — and Upendra’s driver Harpal were also arrested. “Suresh and Ramesh were cooks in the guest house of the accused,” said the police. The police, who on Wednesday had arrested co-accused Jeevan’s wife Pooja and Kumar’s driver Umesh, continued to conduct raids in and around the Capital on Thursday in search of the accused, who is absconding. An Alwar-based anaesthetist, Dr KK Agarwal who may have assisted in the kidney racket has been tracked down by the Uttar Pradesh police.