Click to play videoNew Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the Nepal police apprehended the alleged kingpin of the Gurgaon kidney racket, Amit Kumar, somewhere near the Indo-Nepal border on Thursday evening.
Nepal’s Minister of Home Affairs Ram Kumar Choudhary confirmed that 'a person named Amit Kumar Raut' was arrested from a resort in Sauraha at around 1700 hours on Thursday.
The minister said he has received reports from the DIG that the police team also recovered Rs 1.5 crore of Indian currency, $1,45,000 and euro 9,36,000 from the person.
The arrested person "has links with a big kidney racket in India and there are cases against him in Nepal as well," the minister said.
A journalist with the Himalayan Times, which first broke the story, told CNN-IBN that the Nepal police arrested the man from a jungle resort camp in the southern town of Sauraha, about 60 km from the Indo-Nepal border town of Raxaul.
The Sauraha resort in Chitwan district, about 60 km from Raxaul in Bihar. The journalist, however, said the identity of the arrested person is yet to be confirmed.
Sources said Dr Kumar and his Nepali associate Manish Singh checked into Room Number 6 of the Hotel Wildlife Camp around 10 am on Thursday morning under Singh's name. Other reports said the doctor had checked into the hotel with two other people.
Sources say the doctor was trying to use a cyber cafe in the area when some local people identified him and tipped the police.
A short while later a police team reached the hotel and began enquiring about the guests. The policemen showed the receptionist a picture of Dr Kumar and sought to know whether he was staying in the hotel. Even as the receptionist made a positive identification, the Nepali associate of Dr Kumar, Manish Singh, fled the place.
The police team then rushed to the room and arrested Dr Kumar. Amit is being brought by road to Kathmandu where the Indian High Commission will be intimated formally on Friday.
Talking to CNN-IBN, the SSP of Nepal Crime Branch, Upendra Kanta Aryal, said that the Nepal police have made some 'positive progress' in the case.
He, however, refused to give any details. He said the police are still investigating the case and he hopes to give some 'good news' very soon.
Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, however, told CNN-IBN that the Nepali authorities have not given them any information about the arrest of Amit Kumar.
"We have no information about the arrest and whatever we know we came to know is from media only. Nothing has been informed to us so far by the Nepali authorities," Mukherjee said.
Officials in Delhi say they will put in an extradition request on Friday once the high commission is intimated. But diplomatic sources say Indian officials may have to work with Nepali police since Amit is wanted in connection with some cases there as well.
The Nepal police is believed to have made the arrest on the basis of an Interpol red-corner notice issued against the doctor earlier this week.
Reports coming in from Kathmandu said one of the key aides of Amit Kumar, Deepak Lama, too was arrested along with the kidney kingpin.
Earlier on Thursday, the Nepal police had claimed that Amit Kumar had stayed in Hotel Radisson, Lazimpat, in Nepal on January 28. Quoting police sources, Himalayan Times gave Amit Kumar's passport number as Z047537..
According to the passport, his birth date is July 26, 1967, the paper said.
However, the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) did not confirm his latest stay in the hotel, but said it had information about his stay in the hotel in September.
Nepal Police also claimed that they have identified the Nepali agent who worked for the Indian kidney racket allegedly run by Amit Kumar and his brother Jeevan Kumar.
The person has been identified as Pankaj Jha. Police haven't given any details about him as yet. "Based on our intelligence, we are sure he is involved in the racket," a police official said, insisting anonymity.
It was earlier reported that more than 70 workers of the garment factories on the outskirts of Kathmandu were taken to India at the behest of this man and their kidneys were taken out.
Earlier a guesthouse owner in Gongabu, Nepal, had come out to claim that an Indian named Yaspal Sharma had come to meet him before Dashain to buy his guesthouse.
"I don't know whether he was Amit Kumar. I heard from the media that he is accountant of Amit,'' he said, adding Sharma told him he had a hospital in India and wanted to establish one in Nepal.
In India, police forces in Moradabad and Gurgaon said they have no knowledge of the arrest.
"We have got information through media that Amit has been arrested in Nepal, but we are verifying the claim," Moradabad Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manzil Saini said.
Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner of Police Rakesh Arya said: "We are trying to get details from the Nepal police."
The kidney transplants racket, which served clients from Britain, the US, Greece, Lebanon, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, was busted by the police forces of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in Gurgaon on January 24.
A Red Corner notice was issued against Amit alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut last week after the Central Bureau of Investigation approached Interpol on a request of the Haryana police.
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