The Central Bureau of Investigation special court at Ambala, on Tuesday, framed charges against nine persons accused in the infamous 2008 Gurgaon kidney scam.
Those charged include the alleged kingpin, Dr Amit Kumar, his suspected co-conspirator and brother Jeevan Raut, Dr K.K. Aggarwal, Saroj, Dr Upendra Aggarwal, medical technician Manoj, Linda (a nurse), and Gyasuddin and Jagdish — two men who allegedly acted as facilitators.
The accused are charged with conducting hundreds of illegal kidney transplant surgeries between 1999 and January 2008. According to the CBI’s chargesheet, they worked through a well-established network of touts and the victims (donors) were held under guard in various rented premises. The chargesheet also alleged that Dr Amit Kumar, whose real name is Santosh Rameshwar Raut, was not even qualified to carry out kidney transplants. The gang removed more than 600 kidneys over nine years until the murky racket was exposed. The two main accused, Kumar and Raut, have been held without bail for nearly two-and-a-half years now.
CBI officials claim to have put up a “foolproof” case with as many as ten persons who were made to part with their kidneys and two prospective donors amongst 238 witnesses. Investigators have reams of documentary evidence including details of bank transactions, equipment purchase and property held by the accused. The framing of charges was delayed because the main accused, also facing trial in similar rackets in Rajasthan, could not be produced in person.