Blade Runner

• He is an Ayurveda doctor from Akola, Maharashtra
  
• Mumbai is where he started playing the surgeon's role
  
• Arrested in 1993, he jumped bail and fled to Rajasthan.
  
• Reportedly booked and jumped bail on other occasions before relocating to Gurgaon in 2000.
  
• Performed over 500 kidney transplants. Not paying donors the promised sum led to his arrest.
  
• In Canada, where he owns property, neighbours know him as a cardiovascular surgeon

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It was one such donor, Pappu, who blew the whistle on Dr Kumar. He registered a complaint with the Moradabad police in January that he had not been paid the promised Rs 50,000. The cops acted swiftly in the case. Four constables who posed as O-positive blood group donors were taken to the Gurgaon clinic and saw first hand what was going on. A quick decision to raid the clinic was taken on January 24, though Dr Kumar managed to escape then.

The doctor has been remanded to CBI custody till February 22. For now, the investigating agency is conducting its inquiry on the following lines: questioning donors, middlemen and other key players like Dr Saraj. Amit Kumar's brother, Jeevan, is currently absconding. A nurse from Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, who was arrested last week, is cooperating with the investigators. In the days to come, more names of doctors linked to the Gurgaon clinic are likely to surface.

According to doctors, illegal kidney transplants is a flourishing business because of the reluctance of the rich to donate even to their blood relatives. Many take the position that one need not give up an organ when a donor can be organised for as little as Rs 20,000. And with cadaver transplants yet to take off in the country, the supply-demand gap ensures that the illegal clinics run a roaring business.

Even though Dr Kumar's arrest grabbed headlines and shocked the nation, he could get off lightly for his excesses with the scalpel. Under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, the maximum penalty is seven years and a fine of Rs 20,000. But more often than not, a lighter sentence of three years is imposed. Which is perhaps why the CBI is investigating him for fraud and is looking at his investments in real estate, both in India and abroad. Officials hope to book Dr Kumar under Section 120, 326 and 420 of the IPC for crimes ranging from criminal conspiracy, cheating to wrongful confinement.

Incidentally, one fact that surfaced during the investigation is that Dr Kumar is not merely a transplant surgeon. In Canada, where he has property, he is known as a cardiovascular surgeon! But then, come to think of it, even Amit Kumar is not his real name....