MUMBAI, May 23: For a man who spent a better part of his life pursuing the possibility of having an artificial alternative to heart, human sentiments could not have meant much. Dhani Ram Baruah, whose claim of having created a implantable biological heart had catapulted him to dizzying heights of fame, has left behind in Mumbai a trail of broken commitments, unkept promises and tales of betrayal.

Baruah borrowed Rs 3 lakh from an acquaintance of one of his former employees, Neelam Waradkar, to buy equipment for his laboratory located in Santacruz Electronic Export Promotion Zone (SEEPZ). It had been agreed that if he failed to return the amount, the money-lender could seize the equipment. Baruah did not return the amount and in his absence, the money-lender entered his SEEPZ unit (now sealed by the development commission) and carried the equipment away. Saigeeta Achrekar, Baruah's assistant, then filed a complaint at the MIDC police station.

``We thought Neelam was working in the institute's interest so she had the keys to the laboratory. She has stolen expensive, imported equipment from the institute,'' Baruah says.

Among the many people Baruah owes money to, is a part-time interior designer Hemant Kumar. Though Baruah had been occupying the SEEPZ unit since 1986, his laboratory was formally inaugurated on September 14, 1990 by the then Commonwealth Secretary General Chief Emeka Anyaoku.

Baruah had assigned Hemant Kumar the task of designing his laboratory in time for the inauguration. According to Kumar, they became friends during this period. But once the work was over, Baruah began to avoid him and has not paid his bills of Rs 1.4 lakh till today. As Kumar is employed with a city bank, which does not permit him to conduct the interior designing business, he has been unable to take any legal action. Says Kumar, ``I chased him for years. He even had me thrown out by his security guards at SEEPZ. For a middle-class man like me, Rs 1.4 lakh is a heavy loss.''

Baruah, however denies he knows any Hemant Kumar. He says that his former director Prakash Salvi had employed Kumar and was supposed to pay his money.

All attempts to contact Prakash Salvi have failed as even his close relatives have no clue about his whereabouts. M K Jain, a city-based advocate says, ``Baruah had mesmerised me. I believed he was a doctor of great potential. I gave him legal advice whenever he required it. I recommended him for an award at the Lions' Club. I even signed on his loan agreement with the State Bank of India. (Jain has been named one of the defendants in the case filed by the State Bank of India). Despite all this, he cheated me.''

Jain was introduced to Baruah by his nephew Colonel Sushilkumar Jain. Sushilkumar Jain and Baruah studied together in England, and were good friends. When Baruah came to India, Sushilkumar rented him his flat (H-176 Tarapore Cooperative Society, Oshivara Linking Road, Mumbai). M K Jain was asked to sign as a witness. Says M K Jain, ``Baruah lived in the flat for 18 months. When he obtained the two units in SEEPZ, he vacated the flat but without paying a penny of the rent (which was around Rs 3,500 per month).

Later, Sushilkumar Jain received telephone bills of over Rs 2 lakh!'' Baruah had entered into an agreement stating he would pay the telephone bills. Baruah admits he stayed in Sushilkumar's flat. However, he claims that M K Jain used to visit him thrice a week and make indiscriminate outstation calls. ``I thought he will pay the bill, but he refused,'' says Baruah.According to people who had been associated with him, Baruah wielded tremendous political clout. In an interview to a local daily, Baruah had acknowledged the help of Indira Gandhi in the releasing of zirconium for his project. ``In his biodata, Baruah mentions his qualifications as an MBBS from Assam and FRCS from Glasgow. His wife and two grown-up children still live in Glasgow. The son of an illiterate farmer, Baruah was born in a mud hut in the Jaigal village in Assam.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.