A Delhi police team made the second arrest in the city on Thursday in connection with a kidney transplant racket.

Deepak Kar, 48, was picked up from his home near the Joramandir crossing in Baguiati, close to the Bypass.

Kar is a close aide of T. Rajkumar Rao, arrested in Rajarhat on Tuesday, a Delhi police officer said.

Cops believe Rao, who was taken to Delhi on Wednesday, is the kingpin of the racket.

Last Friday, police had arrested five people, including two staff members of doctors at the Apollo Hospital in Delhi, on charges of running the racket.

The team left with Kar for the capital by train on Friday evening after the chief judicial magistrate's court in Barasat granted them his transit remand.

Metro caught up with Kar while he was being taken to Howrah station and he outlined his modus operandi.

Kar said he used to target poor youngsters, mainly labourers and rickshaw pullers, and convince them that they could make a fast buck and stay fit at the same time by selling one of their kidneys.

He would strike the deal near an obscure tea stall in Baguiati, he said.

"I would tell a prospective donor that I had sold one of my kidneys and was doing fine. I would cite the example of Rao sir and say he, too, had sold one of his kidneys 10 years ago and doing great."

Kar said he had been involved in the racket since 2008. Once a prospective donor appeared convinced, he would pay them Rs 10,000-20,000, he said.

Kar said he always had Rs 1-2 lakh disposable money with him from which he used to make the initial payments.

After that he would ask them to furnish proof of identity such as voter I-card or driving licence.

In case, they didn't have any, Kar said he would give them forged documents. "I can forge notary certificates, domicile and medical certificates very easily. These are required before transplantation surgeries. My forged documents looked so genuine that they were never questioned."

Several rubber stamps, which were used in forging documents, were seized from his home, the Delhi police officer said.

Once the paperwork was in place, Kar would take the prospective donor to Delhi or south India by train. The surgeries were conducted at nursing homes, he said.

Kar was also responsible for logistical details such as train tickets and hotel accommodation, the officer said.

He would stay with the donor till he was declared fit to travel and pay him/her anything between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 4 lakh after returning to Calcutta, the officer said.

Kar said his commission varied between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000, depending on the amount paid to the donor. "The lesser I paid to the donor, the more I had to myself."

He said till about two years ago, two private hospitals off the Bypass used to carry out illegal transplants.

Among those arrested till now, Kar said he knew Rao and his partner Ashim Sikdar.

The officer said Kar had "cordial ties" with several doctors in Bengal. "He has named another agent who stays in Sodepur. He has named a doctor who apparently carried out many illegal surgeries. But that doctor is dead," the officer said.

"Kar has earned a lot of money and has an extensive network in hospitals and nursing homes in Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Vellore, Chennai and Delhi."

Man dead

A man was found lying in a pool of blood in his home in Cossipore on Thursday night. Police said Basant Lal Kori, a CESC retiree, had left home in the morning and returned a few hours later bleeding from the head. His children have claimed he refused treatment till his death around 9pm.

Mango murder

Parents of the Thakurpukur teenager who died on Tuesday, five days after being thrashed by some men who accused him of stealing mangoes, added the names of five people in the FIR on Friday.

Chargesheet

A city court on Thursday served Ambikesh Mahapatra and some members of the outfit, Akranta Amra, copies of a chargesheet in a 2014 case. They had been charged with rioting, assault, wrongful restraint and obstructing the road, following a meeting on Rani Rashmoni Avenue on December 3, 2014 to demand police action in the Kurban Shah murder. Shah had been lynched at the boys' hostel of NRS Medical College and Hospital in November that year.