Chief Arrested kidney trafficking ring that cheated the poor to operarles
February 3, 2009 · Print
New Delhi, Feb 8 (EFE). - Lured by false promises of work or gunpoint, hundreds of poor Indians fell into an international network of trafficking in kidneys whose leader, known in India as "Dr. Horror" has been arrested in Nepal.
The arrest of the doctor, Amit Kumar, took place on Thursday night in a hotel in the Nepalese border with India, where he was transferred to Kathmandu and shown today to the media.
"I am innocent. I have not committed any crime, "said a nervous Kumar Nepal between the police and before dozens of photographers and journalists arrived from India.
However, police said Kumar had admitted shortly before his participation in 300 kidney transplant in India during the last 13 or 14 years in a clinic of their own.
In recent weeks, Indian society has seen the progressive revelations shocked that the police made on organ trafficking network, which performed about 600 transplants to customers from Europe, America and Asia.
The network was dismantled with the arrest of five people last January 24 in the city of Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, though Kumar, 43, was missing since then and Interpol had to enter the fray .
According to the release of the victims, the doctor and his cronies commonly removed healthy kidneys and poor villagers those captured with false promises of work or money, or even threatening them at gunpoint.
"I was brought after receiving a job offer," said one of the victims on the day of the first police operation in Gurgaon. "Then I was taken to hospital to undergo a medical examination. But at night someone came and told me they were going to remove my kidney in exchange for $ 1,200, and they would kill me if I refused. "
The network used to pay 1,200 to $ 2,500 to his victims, but then charged between 25,000 and 50,000 U.S. dollars to Indian customers, Lebanon, Dubai, USA, UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Greece, according to Indian police.
"His network was well expanded by some foreign country. So far, names have come from Turkey, Greece and Ireland. We are trying to identify "the agency said another police source IANS India.
Kumar had eight properties, one in Canada, eight luxury vehicles and twenty-five bank accounts, which had deposited about 1,000 million rupees (about $ 25 million), according to authorities.
At the time of his arrest, Kumar, who for weeks has been the most sought after, he brought more than 145,000 euros and $ 18,900 undeclared, which in Nepal is a crime that could cost up to four years in prison.
Although Gurgaon Police accused their counterparts in New Delhi have stopped Kumar escape payment of a bribe, now the Indian authorities are prepared to ensure the earliest possible return to the country doctor, who has generated a huge wave of outrage .
"I expect him to be extradited soon," said Vice Minister of Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal, quoted by IANS.
The head of research in Nepal, Upendra Kanta Aryal, told Efe however, that the defendant is innocent because the law says Haryana (India Administrative Region where he managed the clinic) is "dark" about the kidney transplant.
In the darkness of an apartment managed by the network, today Police located four other victims were in critical condition after an operation suffered on January 22.
"The victims told us they were attracted by a Nepali on the pretext of giving them a job, but the kidneys were excised at Amit's clinic," said Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner of Police, Satish Balyan.
The sale of organs is banned in India but in several areas of the country as Tamil Nadu (south), it is not unusual for the poor to access sell one of their kidneys to foreign customers to succeed.
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