Chandigarh, Feb. 2: Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin in the kidney transplant racket, was in Chandigarh when Moradabad and Haryana police were looking for him in Gurgaon.

Bulbul Kataria, an insurance agent from Chandigarh said to be close to Kumar, told a television channel yesterday that on January 24, when the police were on the hunt in Gurgaon, she had flown with the doctor from Delhi to Chandigarh. She wanted to show him a plot in Mansa Devi in Panchkula for a hospital.

Kataria, who said she first met Kumar about two years ago as he wanted to take out a Rs 2-crore policy, claimed that he also wanted to gift her a Mercedes Benz and had even extended financial help to her.

She said Kumar was not his usual self after getting a call on his cellphone. “He wanted to get back to Delhi soon and I put him on a taxi,” Kataria told the channel, before Gurgaon police barged into its office and detained her.

Based on Kataria’s statement, the police are trying to locate the taxi that Kumar hired in Chandigarh.

Kataria could not be reached for comment. “We do not have anything to say,” her brother said.

In yet another indication of the unfolding reach of the racket, Uttar Pradesh police last night arrested a doctor in Alwar, Rajasthan, who had connections with Kumar.

Krishan Kumar Agrawal, an anaesthetist, said he had helped Kumar perform over 200 surgeries in the last two-and-a-half years, senior superintendent of police Prem Prakash said. Agrawal said he got Rs 20,000-30,000 per operation whereas he was getting only Rs 700 in Alwar, Prakash said.