February
7, 2008 Kidney Scam
Mastermind
Tried to Open Center in Nepal By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu
As an international manhunt began for the absconding Indian who was
masterminding a massive illegal kidney transplant operation spanning
several countries, reports about his close links to Nepal began
surfacing.
Amit Kumar alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut, whose mammoth racket run
with the help of doctors and a wide network of touts was exposed in
Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi last month, had tried to open a
centre in Nepal as well, a media report said Thursday amid growing
conviction that the 40-year-old could have fled to Nepal after being
exposed.
Ramdev Pandey, who ran a guesthouse in the Gongabhu area of capital
city Kathmandu, told the media that an Indian had met him last year
to bid for his guesthouse.
Yashpal Sharma, described as Amit Kumar's accountant, had come to
negotiate for the guesthouse around September and offered to buy the
guesthouse for NRS.1 million, the Himalayan Times daily reported.
The visitor reportedly told the Nepali that he had a hospital in
India and was planning to run another one in Nepal.
However, Pandey said the deal fell through since the Indian did not
keep his part of the bargain and send the money by October, as he
had promised.
Consequently, Pandey found a new buyer.
It was a stroke of good luck. With Kumar being on the run and an
Interpol hunt having begun for his arrest, Pandey would have had to
face interminable police and media queries by now if the deal had
come through.
Besides duping illiterate, unsuspecting workers from Nepal and
making them part with a kidney for a pittance through a syndicate of
touts, Kumar is also reported to have made several trips to Nepal.
Kathmandu police said he had visited the capital in September.
The Himalayan Times, quoting anonymous police sources, said that the
fugitive was traced to the five-star Hotel Radisson in the upmarket
Lazimpat area, where many of the foreign embassies are located.
He stayed there on Jan 28, the daily said.
The newspaper also added that one of Kumar's Nepali agents had been
identified by Kathmandu police.
Police sources reportedly said a man called Pankaj Jha was under
suspicion as being Kumar's agent in Nepal.
However, there was no immediate official confirmation or details
about the suspect.
Police have been scouting possible hideouts in the city in search of
the missing Kumar, reports said.
Amit Kumar is suspected to be either hiding in Nepal or made his way
to Canada where his family lives.
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