CBI searches nursing home, guest house

Searches were conducted at the kidney kingpin's nursing home and guest house as part of the agency's investigation.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) got cracking on the kidney racket probe on Monday as its investigators, accompanied by forensic experts, carried out thorough searches at several places in Gurgaon — at the nursing home where the illegal transplants used to take place, the guesthouse where foreign clients used to be lodged and six other locations, including other nursing homes.

Sources said most of the leads about Monday's raids emerged from the alleged mastermind of the racket, Dr Amit Kumar, who was on Sunday remanded in CBI custody till February 22. "While the nursing home and the guest house were searched by the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh Police earlier, we are looking for specific elements. The tips about other locations we raided emerged after Amit's interrogation, which is on," said a CBI official close to the investigations.

According to officials, one of the main areas of probe that Kumar was being grilled about was the racket's international links. After being deported from Nepal on Saturday, this was the third day in a row the CBI questioned Kumar, termed by the media as "Dr Horror". "We have to ascertain several facts and claims coming out of the interrogation. Depending on that, we hope to achieve a speedy breakthrough since they come from the kingpin himself," he said.

While a major breakthrough is awaited, the central probe agency on Monday took charge of three of Amit's alleged accomplices from the Uttar Pradesh police.

A Gurgaon court remanded Dr Upendra, Jagdish Nai and Gyasuddin, arrested by the Moradabad police, in CBI custody till February 16. Upendrea, considered another vital link in the racket's local operations, ran a nursing home in Faridabad.