He may have earned the tag of ‘Dr Horror’ for illegally harvesting hundreds of organs, but Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin of an interstate kidney transplantation ring busted near Dehradun last week, was apparently a very different man to his wife.
Even while he was in hiding after fleeing from Gujarat police custody last year, he sent bouquets and cakes to his wife Bulbul Kataria, a former beauty queen from Chandigarh, she told Hindustan Times.
The couple fell in love and married after a decade-long relationship in March 2014, just a month after Amit was granted bail in the 2008 Gurgaon kidney ring.
In July last year, he was again arrested for his alleged involvement in a kidney ring in Gujarat, after which he fled from police custody in August and laid low for a long time.
“After he ran away from the Gujarat police, he did not contact me because of the threat of cops, but he was sending me cakes and bouquets through couriers even when he was hiding,” Bulbul, who met Amit recently at the Dehradun district jail after one year, told HT.
{{/usCountry}}“After he ran away from the Gujarat police, he did not contact me because of the threat of cops, but he was sending me cakes and bouquets through couriers even when he was hiding,” Bulbul, who met Amit recently at the Dehradun district jail after one year, told HT.
{{/usCountry}}So madly was Amit in love that he even promised her that he would leave the dark world of illegal kidney transplantation after marriage, she said. This is Amit’s third marriage.
“He was even trying to contact me through social media but I was not answering because I was upset with him for running away from the law...if he’s innocent and not culprit, then he should face the law, I would have got him bailed out,” Bulbul said, adding that she had “full faith” in the judicial system.
“The only condition for our marriage was that he’d leave this (illegal kidney business)...and he even stayed away from it until last year,” his wife claimed, alleging that it was Amit’s brother Jeevan who coaxed him into reviving the ring.
“If he’s guilty, he should be punished, but I believe that my husband is innocent and I’ll stand up for him,” she said.
Both Amit and Jeevan were arrested by the Dehradun police from Panchkula in Haryana on September 15 in connection with the kidney ring that was being run from Gangotri Charitable Hospital, around 30 km from Dehradun.
Dehradun superintendent of police (rural) Sarita Dobhal said the police was yet to take her official version on the matter.
“We had spoken to her in the past (for leads) but are yet to record her official statement... Once we do that, we’ll be looking into all aspects (of the statement) for investigation,” she told HT.