Three foreign patients had died at Dr Amit’s clinic

The matter was hushed up and the deaths were shown to be results of cardiac arrest, report SK Ahuja and S Raju.

Three foreigners, Turkish nationals, had died during illegal transplant procedures at kidney racket kingpin Amit Kumar’s hospital in Gurgaon Sector 23 between 2003 and 2005. The matter was hushed up and the deaths were shown to be results of cardiac arrest.

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This was revealed by Harpal, the driver of Dr Upender Kumar (a close associate of Amit Kumar) to Gurgaon police. He was arrested on January 30 and is in the custody of the Gurgaon police till February 6. Harpal said Mehmet Bayzit (55) died on October 2, 2003, Ishmat Gurmer (62) on November 13, 2004 and Ahmet Yalidiram (65) on November 15, 2005. Dr Upender did the clean-up job — took each body to his hospital in Ballabgarh near Faridabad, colluded with local authorities and showed heart failure as the cause of the deaths.

The Gurgaon police said had the matter been properly investigated by the local authorities at that time, the kidney racket could have been exposed as early as in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Moradabad police have discovered that Dr Amit had links with at least 40 dialysis centres across Delhi. He used his contacts in these dialysis centres to pick up potential kidney recipients. “We have recovered test reports of donors from two centres in Delhi,” said police officer Manjil Saini.

He added that the gang had referred these donors to these centres for checkup and tests prior to the transplants. Dr Upendra and other arrested members of the gang revealed during interrogation that Dr Amit also had contacts in many dialysis centers in Australia, Canada, Turkey, Greece and Nepal.

The blame game, meanwhile, continues among police forces as to who let the gang's leaders slip away. The Gurgaon police claimed on Sunday that the Moradabad Police let Dr Jeevan escape. The reason: they failed to recognise him. Dr Jeevan Kumar was with Dr Upender at the time of the latter's arrest but was not held as the raiding personnel did not recognise him. It was Dr Jeevan who alerted his brother and others, Gurgaon police said on Sunday. Gurgaon police has also alleged that the Delhi Police Crime Branch accepted benefits from Dr Amit.

Though Central Bureau of Investigations is expected to take over investigations soon, Gurgaon police moved in on Sunday to collect more evidence. They carried away medicines, operation theatre equipment and all diagnostic equipment from the hospital operated by Dr Amit in Sector 23 and DLF. Even the wheelchairs were carted away.