Kidney Racket Kingpin Lived Luxuriously, Tipped His Barber Rs 1000

T Rajkumar Rao, the kingpin in the kidney racket, managed to buy two houses in Kolkata with the illicit money.

T Rajkumar Rao, the alleged kingpin in the kidney trade racket produced before a court in North 24 Pargana district of West Bengal on Wednesday, 8 June 2016. (Photo: PTI)

T Rajkumar, the alleged mastermind of an organ trafficking racket at Delhi’s Indraprastha Apollo hospital, owned two houses, including a palatial building, in Kolkata, and gave lavish four-figure tips to even the local barber.

Rajkumar, who was living for the past three years in the Rajarhat area of the Delhi’s north east fringes close to the airport, posed as a big trader of saline solution “with business interests abroad”.

Rajkumar, who lived with his wife and son, kept aloof from the neighbours. A middle-aged woman living close to Rajkumar’s house said:

I never saw anything suspicious. I only heard that he had business interests abroad, and dealt in saline. I used to see Rajkumar very rarely. He always used to keep to himself.

However, on Monday, he had thrown a lavish feast marking his Griha Pravesh – house warming ceremony – into his new residence called Seven Hills.

Recently, he built a huge, luxury edifice, 200 m away from his first house – a small house in the Khamar Shibtala area of Rajarhat.

A day later, well-designed invitation cards reached the locals for Rajkumar’s marriage anniversary. There were around 250 invitees. It was during this party that Rajkumar was arrested.

The arrest has come like a bolt from the blue for the neighbours. And stories have now started circulating about the man and his extravagant lifestyle.

We are now hearing that he was a spendthrift. That he used to give tips of Rs 1,000 to the barber in local saloons for a mere hair cut. Even while travelling the short distance from his residence to the airport, he used to pay the driver Rs 2,000.

Rajkumar was, on Wednesday, presented at the Barasat Court which gave him a three-day transit remand to Delhi Police.

He has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy for trading in human kidneys.

Investigators have claimed the members of the gang persuaded poor people from various parts of the country – West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu – to donate their kidney in exchange for money.

The gang also forged identity proofs to establish the relationship between the donors and the recipients. The recipients were charged large sums while the donors were fobbed off with paltry amounts.

(With IANS inputs.)

Also Read: Apollo Kidney Racket: Kingpin Arrested, 10 Doctors to Be Probed