While police forces around the world search for the Indian doctor who scammed hundreds out of their kidneys, his wife and children remain barricaded behind security doors at their Brampton home.

Interpol, the international police organization, last week issued a rarely used "red notice" warrant for Dr. Amit Kumar requesting his arrest anywhere on the planet.

Kumar, dubbed "Dr. Horror" by the Indian media where his story has led to nationwide revulsion, is alleged to be the kingpin of an underground kidney trafficking ring. Indian police believe the ring illegally harvested kidneys from as many as 500 unsuspecting Indians.

Most of the kidneys came from Indian labourers or farmers who say they were either duped, or forced at gunpoint, to give up a kidney.

The organs were then transplanted into wealthy clients, Indian or foreigners, in well-equipped underground clinics in residential areas.

It is illegal in India to sell a kidney; the Interpol warrant charges Kumar with "crimes against life and health" and being part of a criminal enterprise.

"If he has done what police say he did, I hope he gets punished severely," a Brampton neighbour told the Star.

Neighbours said Kumar, his wife Poonam Ameet, and their two boys, 5 and 4, moved into the area last April and the children attend a local private school.

Documents obtained by the Star show the couple bought the four-bedroom home on Pali Dr., in the predominantly Indian neighbourhood of Bovaird Dr. and Airport Rd., in April 2007 for $610,000.

"He told us he was a cardiovascular surgeon, with clients around the world, but he never once mentioned anything about kidneys."

Kumar, who Indian police say is not a surgeon, was last seen in Brampton before Christmas driving a leased $65,000 Lexus 350 SUV. While some found him "standoffish," others said he seemed to be up front and candid.

"I'm absolutely in shock," said the neighbour, calling Kumar a "gem of guy" who brought him gifts from his trips to India. "This is strange. I'm baffled. I feel so let down."

Kumar told him he was going back to India to wind down his businesses, which he said included a hotel, a hospital and several clinics.

He planned to open a hotel in Canada upon his return and was going to live and work here permanently.

Those plans were cut short on Jan. 24, when Indian police, acting on complaints from victims, raided a clinic in a well-to-do area of Gurgaon, near New Delhi, arresting a doctor, several nurses and drivers.

But Kumar, who police say has at least six aliases with matching phony passports, managed to escape, leading some outraged media outlets in India to claim he was tipped off about the raids in advance.

So far, four doctors, five nurses, 20 paramedics, three private hospitals, 10 pathology clinics and five diagnostic centres have been implicated, said Mohinder Lal, the officer in charge of the investigation.

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While the scandal has been raging in India for the past 10 days, friends in Brampton only learned their neighbour is alleged to be the notorious "Dr. Death," and "Dr. Kidney" – as he's been dubbed by the Indian media – after seeing his photo on newscasts.

"I was shocked, blown away," said a neighbour. "We used to joke at parties that he must be loaded to get such a beautiful wife, but nothing prepared us for this."

Added one: "It's very unusual for someone to come here from India and buy a big house like this and a Lexus. Doctors in India just don't make that kind of money."

Poonam, 28, has told friends on the street that her marriage to Kumar was arranged when she was 18. Amit has also confided that his first wife left him after his arrest in 1994 on suspicion of running a kidney transplant racket in Mumbai. But police say he jumped bail, changed his name and set up again.

No one was answering the door at Kumar's champagne brick home yesterday, but children could be seen peeking through the closed blinds. A glass security door installed on Thursday was locked and a taped phone message said service "is temporarily disconnected."

Emails on computers seized in the raids suggest Kumar was getting transplant inquiries from Canada.

A spokesperson for the RCMP said last week Canadian authorities had limited information about the Indian investigation but police had been in touch through Interpol.

Police said teams of kidney scouts roamed labour markets in Delhi and cities in Uttar Pradesh, India's poorest state, searching for potential donors.

Some prospects were asked outright if they wanted to sell a kidney and offered $1,000 to $2,500. Others were forced at gunpoint or drugged. The ring charged $50,000 for a transplant.





With files by Noor Javed

Dale Brazao can be reached at dbrazao@thestar.ca.

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