Jalandhar kidney racket: SIT gets more teeth

The Punjab Police have appointed inspector general of police (IGP), intelligence, Varinder Kumar as the supervisory officer to oversee probe into the high-profile kidney racket unearthed in July last year.

The Punjab Police have appointed inspector general of police (IGP), intelligence, Varinder Kumar as the supervisory officer to oversee probe into the high-profile kidney racket unearthed in July last year.

The development, seen as an effort to speed up the investigation and take the case to its logical conclusion, comes days after the high court granted anticipatory bail to prime accused Dr Rajesh Aggarwal. The bail to Aggarwal was considered a setback for the special investigation team (SIT), which had opposed it.

IGP Kumar has already summoned members of the SIT, composed of deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Sandeep Kumar Sharma, additional DCP (headquarters) Alka Meena, ADCP-I J Elanchezhian, ADCP-II Amrik Singh Powar, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (Model Town) and the station house officer (SHO) of police station-7.

The SIT members have been asked to come up with the entire case record, but a meeting scheduled for Wednesday was postponed in view of the deputy chief minister’s visit. The next of date of the meeting has yet to be decided. Sources said the SIT will be preparing a questionnaire for Dr Aggarwal as he had reportedly sought more time on January 18.

The sources added that Dr Aggarwal will also be grilled about the doctors who performed the transplants. On January 15, the SIT had announced to summon three doctors, including a doctor couple, after their names cropped up during the questioning of Dr Aggarwal’s wife, Deepa Aggarwal.d