How the kidney kingpin fooled Mumbai police

New Delhi: Kidney kingpin Santosh Raut, accused by the Mumbai police in two cases, had changed his name to Amit Kumar via a Maharashtra state gazette in 2001, yet the Mumbai police heard about it only in February this year when Raut’s Gurgaon case reached the CBI. In its charge sheet on the Gurgaon case filed in an Ambala court on Tuesday, the CBI mentioned that Raut had changed his name in 2001. Interestingly, when he changed his name, he was under trial as Santosh Raut in a 1994 case lodged at Khar. Interestingly, even four years after the name change, when the Mahim police booked Raut and four others in another kidney case, he was once again mentioned as Santosh Raut. Quite obviously the police knew nothing of his name change even then. What’s more, Raut, 40, had also changed his birth date in 2001. “We came to know about his name change only in February when the CBI arrested him in a Gurgaon case,” admitted an investigating officer at Mahim Police station requesting anonymity. Immediately after his arrest by the CBI, when this correspondent spoke to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria, he admitted ignorance about Raut’s name change. At the time he had said the Mumbai police would seek a written confirmation from the CBI that Amit was indeed Santosh Raut. When asked why the police had not known about the gazette, the officer at Mahim police station said that they had never received a copy of the state gazette. Maria then suggested that police verification be made mandatory in all cases of name change. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police have obtained a production warrant for Santosh Raut alias Amit in the Mahim case and will soon be visiting Delhi to seek his custody. He is presently in judicial custody. Maria said they would seek cancellation of his bail in the Khar case on grounds of breach of bail conditions. He attended the trial in the Khar case till June 2005 and then disappeared. CBI officials told Mumbai Mirror that Santosh Raut had created a number of aliases to hoodwink investigating agencies and continue with his shady business of illegal kidney transplants. In all his paperwork related to bank accounts and in Canada where he has a plush bungalow he has spelled his name as ‘Ameet’. The CBI charge sheet says that Raut holds a degree in Ayurveda (BAMS) and was conducting kidney transplant surgeries illegally. His brother Jeevan Kumar, a co-accused in Gurgaon and Moradabad cases, on the other hand is only qualified to prescribe homeopathic medicines. Changing one’s name is easy The official procedure for changing one’s name at the Government Press at Charni Road is quite simple. All you have to do is to fill up a form and pay the required fee. An ordinary form costs Rs 120 while an urgent form costs Rs 620. In the first case, you will receive two original copies of the Government Gazette certifying your new name within one-and-half months. In the second case, the gazette will reach you in 8 to 10 days. After you get the original copies of the government gazette you can also approach a newspaper to publish a personal advertisement stating your name change. For people who intend to apply for a passport with their new name this procedure is mandatory.