Brother of kidney-snatching 'mastermind' arrested

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The brother of a man accused of being the mastermind in a kidney-transplant scheme has been arrested by India's elite police force.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Jeevan Rawat, who is being accused of assisting his brother Amit Kumar in a kidney-buying, -selling and -stealing scheme.

It follows Friday's arrest of a Delhi police officer on corruption charges in the case, along with six other officers who have been named but not arrested.

A Delhi police official said the officers are accused taking bribes from and turning a blind eye to the kidney-selling ring that spanned more than a decade.

Police arrested Inspector Ravinder Kumar Singh for allegedly accepting almost $50,000 dollars from the ring to release one of its doctors only days before a raid that unveiled the international kidney-selling racket. Investigators said Upendra Kumar was the person freed after the officer was paid off.

Upendra was later captured and police said he confessed to being a close aid of Amit Kumar. Kumar was on the run for two weeks before being captured in neighboring Nepal.

Upendra Kumar, Amit Kumar and Jeevan Rawat are accused of buying, coercing, or stealing kidneys from poor uneducated laborers in order to sell them to foreigners or wealthy Indians who wanted kidney transplants. Inside the secret transplant operating room » E-mail to a friend

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