A staff nurse of Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) — who was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the kidney racket— told the Gurgaon Police that all four ‘doctors’, including kingpin Amit, Jeevan and Saraj, would perform surgeries on patients. She said she had assisted them in the operation theatre for about a year during 2005-06.
The Gurgaon Police arrested Linda Chini Hoi from the RML staff hostel on Wednesday afternoon. Hoi, who hails from Manipur, has been working with RML since October 2006. The police also arrested a driver and two cooks of Amit Kumar. Amit and his brother Jeevan were still at large, the police confirmed.
The police were investigating the possibility of Linda acting as a conduit between doctors of other hospitals and the key accused. Booked under the Human Organs Transplant Act, she was on Thursday remanded in police custody for two days.
Joint police commissioner Manjit Singh Ahalawat said Linda had worked at Amit’s Sector 23-based illegal hospital between December 2005 and October 2006. “Linda was introduced to the kidney gang by another nurse, Dim. She not only assisted the doctors in transplanting the kidney, she also took part in post-operative care of patients,” the JCP said.
Linda did her nursing course from a medical college in Assam in 2002. In October 2006, she had joined RML Hospital. “Even when she was working with RML, Linda continued her association with Dr Amit. She visited the Sector 23 hospital and assisted Amit. She was paid about Rs 8-9000 per month as fixed amount and Rs 15-20,000 for each surgery,” the JCP claimed.
{{/usCountry}}Linda did her nursing course from a medical college in Assam in 2002. In October 2006, she had joined RML Hospital. “Even when she was working with RML, Linda continued her association with Dr Amit. She visited the Sector 23 hospital and assisted Amit. She was paid about Rs 8-9000 per month as fixed amount and Rs 15-20,000 for each surgery,” the JCP claimed.
{{/usCountry}}Ahalawat said Linda told the police that Amit, Jeevan, Dr Upendra and Saraj Kumar would conduct surgeries on patients.
Jeevan’s wife Pooja had already confessed that neither Amit nor Jeevan had MBBS degrees and, therefore, were neither authorised nor trained to conduct surgeries. Even Dr. Saraj Kumar is reported to an anesthetist.
Of the four, only Dr Upendra Kumar had done his MBBS from LLRM Medical College Meerut. But even he was not authorised to conduct surgeries.
The public prosecutor representing the Gurgaon government informed the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Surya Partap Singh -- where Linda and three others were produced – that she had been in touch with the gang since 2005. He said that Linda must have known about the clients as well.
Seeking a seven-day remand for Linda, the police claimed she used to get generous tips from foreign patients in foreign currency. The police wanted to take her to Manipur to recover the money, the public prosecutor reasoned.
Scapegoats: Linda’s lawyer
Linda’s lawyer Pui claimed that the Gurgaon Police, who had failed to arrest the key players, were trying to make Linda and others scapegoats. Arresting nurses, drivers and cooks would not help the police in getting into the depth of the case, Pui said.