Cops take Dr Kidney to court, but forget papers

Mahim police had to face embarrassment on Tuesday while producing kidney kingpin Dr Amit Kumar and his brother before a metropolitan magistrate in Bandra without a remand application.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, R.G. Wankhede, reprimanded the police when police inspector A. Gawade said he had not brought the remand application copy.

Dr Amit and his brother Jeevan were again produced in court in the afternoon with the remand application. Ratnakar Singh, the lawyer representing the accused, pointed loopholes in the police investigation. Countering the police chargesheet filed by the Mahim police in the sessions court, Singh said, “The chargesheet says the victim was given sedatives in Mumbai and then taken to Delhi for the kidney transplantation. How could nobody have noticed since he was being taken by flight?”

Singh further argued the victim also failed to identify the hospital in Delhi where he was operated upon. Singh said the police are not the appropriate authority to carry out the investigation as the case falls under the Organ Transplantation Act and hence has to be tried by a competent authority on a private complaint.

Interestingly, a complaint regarding the same case is being heard with a competent authority also and hence the accused cannot be tried twice for the same offence, added Singh.

The court after hearing the arguments of both the sides remanded the duo to police custody till June 26.

The case dates back to 2005, when Ramji Rao, a beggar from the Mahim dargah area had filed a complaint with the Mahim police station, alleging that his kidney was removed by some people who lured him with Rs 3 lakh.

Five people were arrested in the case and another three were shown wanted, including Dr Amit and his brother, Jeevan.