Wife and two sons 'leave home'

Brampton, Canada: As television channels splashed the news about the arrest of Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin of India's kidney transplant scam, his wife and two sons reportedly slipped out of their house in Canada.

Poonam Ameet and the two young boys have not been seen outside their house since the kidney scam broke.

Kumar, who had been on the run since January 24 after police raided his properties near New Delhi and accused him of 600 illegal kidney transplants, was arrested on Thursday in Nepal.

The Kumars' garage driveway in Canada was cleared of snow and there seemed to be fresh tyre marks on it, confirming movement outside the house for the first time in two weeks.

It was not known whether she had decided to move out after hearing about the arrest of her husband. Nobody could confirm where they had gone.

A man, claiming to represent a major Canadian daily newspaper from Toronto and waiting in a car in front of the house, also confirmed that Kumar's wife and sons left the place at noon.

Asked whether he or anyone else saw them going out, he said no media person was around when they slipped out. He said he was keeping watch to see whether they would return.

There was no response to a knock at the door and there was no movement inside the house.

Outside the door, one could see some old fliers and a few marks on the snow pile.

Amit Kumar's phone number remained disconnected "at the customer's request".