February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

NEW DELHI, Feb 1: Interpol on Friday issued notices for the arrest of two brothers wanted in connection with India’s biggest ever illegal kidney transplant racket, the global police body said.

Amit Kumar, 40, and Jeevan Rawat, 36, are the “subject of national arrest warrants for illegal transplanting of kidneys, cheating and criminal conspiracy”, Interpol said.

“It is believed that during the past eight years around 500 people were forcibly operated on and their kidneys transplanted to foreign patients in a secret operating theatre,” it added.

The multi-million-dollar scam emerged last week after Indian police raided several hospitals and houses in Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb.

A doctor, several intermediaries and hospital staff have been arrested over the past week.

The men behind the illegal operation are believed to have charged up to two million rupees ($50,000) for a kidney from clients from across the globe, according to Gurgaon police.The kidneys are believed to have come from poor migrant workers, some of whom have said they were kidnapped and drugged — although police say the illegal donors were likely to have been paid around Rs40,000.—AFP