While the police are on the lookout for Dr Santosh Raut alias Dr Amit Kumar (51), the alleged kingpin of the kidney racket uncovered by the UP and Haryana police in Gurgaon last Thursday, his first wife and her son in Mumbai struggle to put their past behind them. Speaking to The Indian Express about her former husband, Raut’s first wife Sunita Raut (45) said she had learnt of his illegal operations before his arrest and had tried to persuade him to give up such activities.“I was married to Santosh, and we got divorced in 1994. My son and I have no association with him now and are trying to move on with our lives. Being his wife at that time, I came to know about his illegal operations even before he was first arrested. I constantly urged him to give it up. But he refused to do so, which is the only reason why we got divorced. His family always supported his activities, none of them stood by me,” said Sunita, a resident of Juhu. She has a medical practice and works for a charitable trust. Raut was arrested by the Mumbai Police in 1994 along with 11 others, including two nephrologists, for conducting illegal kidney transplant operations at Kaushalya Nursing Home. Released on bail at the end of the year, he jumped bail and shifted his operations to Jaipur.“I have not heard from him in a long time, we have parted ways. He married another woman after we split. I used to tell him that even Dawood (Ibrahim) earns lots of money but he has earned nobody’s respect. You just have to live by the rules of society. Santosh was very ambitious and was money-hungry. It was my bad luck that I married him. I regret it to this day. I cannot change the past, but I am trying hard to change the future,” she said. Sunita’s son Akshay Raut (25) is pursuing an MBBS in a college outside the city. He is also the owner of Hotel Liberty, a three-star hotel on Golibar Road in Santacruz (East), which was left in his name by his father.“Santosh’s activities have jeopardised my son’s career. His friends and classmates snigger at him, and he is ashamed to face them. I feel bad for him as he has done absolutely nothing wrong himself. I try to protect him as far as I can,” said Sunita. “I am no one to judge what punishment Santosh should be given. But I do know that the law of karma will catch up.”
