He has also told interrogators here that Amit Kumar’s client base spread over as many as 48 countries, and he had done kidney transplants on a former Nigerian Vice-President and a Turkish minister.

These, of course, were besides hi-profile clients from the US, UK, Turkey, Nepal, Dubai, Syria, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Upender, though, has not yet given names and dates of surgeries. Kumar, he has said, charged Rs 15 lakh onwards per transplant.

Moradabad SSP Prem Prakash said, “He (Upender) is an accused. He would now say many things.”

In India, Kumar had a hospital in Noida, Faridabad and Mumbai before setting up base in Gurgaon. Kumar is said to be close to several top north Indian politicians.

Upender has said Kumar lost big money in the stock market in 1992 and, subsequently, shifted from Meerut to Alwar, working with an NGO for four months, and then to Jaipur, running a small clinic.

This was 1994, and Kumar had jumped bail following his arrest by Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch. Upender has told interrogators that Kumar’s brother Jeevan — Interpol last week issued red corner notices against both — has been with him since. In 1994, a case was registered against Kumar in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, where he removed kidneys of three labourers and did not pay them Rs 60,000, as promised.

According to police sources here, Upender has admitted many doctors in Delhi, Jaipur and Maharashtra helped Kumar with medical consultancy but the man he still trusts most is his driver Amit, also absconding since the January 24 raid in Gurgaon. Amit reportedly handled all his accounts and knew every appointment with patients seeking kidney transplant.

Kumar’s second wife, Archana, a gynaecologist, ran a maternity home in Seelampur, east Delhi. The couple, according to Upender, has more than 30 bank accounts.

Upender says he never conducted a surgery with either Amit Kumar, Jeevan Kumar, K K Aggarwal or Saraj Kumar — purportedly the racket’s main surgeons. He says a Turkish woman, known in India as ‘Kavita’, got clients from Turkey, Nigeria and Greece. Likewise, a Nepali doctor — clients from other countries routed through the Himalayan kingdom.

According to police officials, the case against Kumar under Transplantation of Human Organs Act is not very strong. Police have so far got just one FIR: from one Vidya Jatav, alias Pappu, of Meerut, who had approached Moradabad ASP Manzil Saini last month and complained that Amit Kumar had removed his kidney.