'Dr Kidney' not qualified but conducted illegal surgeries

Although Amit Kumar was not a qualified surgeon, he used to transplant kidneys extracted from poor people to wealthy clients from abroad. Kumar’s clinic was based at Palam Vihar near Gurgaon.

“Kumar performed unauthorised acts of removal and transplantation of human organ (kidney) knowing full well that he did not have the requisite qualification, training and experience. As per rules, the required qualification for kidney transplantation must be MS in surgery with three years’ post-MS training in a recognised centre in India or abroad,” the court said.

An Ayurvedic physician, Kumar used to first operate from Mumbai. Later, he shifted his base to Jaipur, and then to Gurgaon. Dr Upender Dublesh, the partner in the crime, owned Sadbhavana Hospital in Faridabad.

After the racket was busted by a UP Police team in January 2008, Kumar slipped to Nepal and remained in hiding for a month before being arrested by the Nepalese authorities from a jungle resort.

A Faridabad court, on February 28, 2012, had sentenced Kumar and Dr Upender to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in connection with the death of three Turkish nationals - Mehmat Bijayat, Ismat Gunnar and Ahmed Yelidres - during surgery.

How skeletons tumbled out

On January 24, 2008, Moradabad police raided Amit Kumar’s clinic at Palam Vihar and rescued three victims whose kidneys were fraudulently extracted.

The CBI had taken up the case in February 2008 after public outcry. A CBI spokesperson said the accused used to fraudulently allure poor people on the pretext of giving them jobs. Later, they removed kidneys without their consent and authorisation from the competent authority.

(HTC)