Kidney racket: Cop remanded in custody

A Delhi police assistant sub-inspector, who along with six other colleagues allegedly extorted over Rs 19 lakh from an aide of kidney racket kingpin Amit Kumar, was on Saturday remanded in two days police custody by a court in New Delhi.

Metropolitan Magistrate R K Singh sent accused Ravinder Kumar Singh to police custody till February 25.

The Delhi police sought four days' custodial interrogation of the accused ASI stating that his name had been mentioned by two witnesses, while Dr Upender, a co-accused of Kumar, had also made a disclosure statement about the payment to him.

Counsel for the accused, Amit Vohra, however, opposed the plea of the police on the ground that the case had been registered on the basis of media reports.

Economic Offence Wing of the Police, on the other hand, claimed that Kumar's aide Upender, from whom he had allegedly extorted money, has already identified the accsued in a test identification parade on February 18 at Tihar jail here.

Seven policemen including Singh had allegedly extorted of Rs 19.85 lakh, besides some other articles last month from the driver of Upendra, one of the main accused in the Gurgaon kidney racket, for letting them go scot-free after being picked up in January.

Singh was arrested on February 14 while the other six accused -- head constables Devender Singh and Vijay Bahadur and constables Naresh Kumar, Kaleem Beg, Surender Rathi and Rakesh Kumar -- who were posted at Special Staff in central district are absconding.

They have been booked under various sections of the IPC including 384 (extortion), 385 (putting persons in fear for extorting money), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).