By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Amit Kumar alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut, the alleged kingpin of the illegal kidney transplant racket in India with international links, was finally nabbed Thursday from a hotel in Nepal near the India border.
Ram Kumar Chaudhary, Nepal’s minister of state for home affairs, confirmed Nepalese media reports that Amit, 40, was arrested from Room No.106 of the Hotel Wildlife Camp in the Chitwan National Park, about 60 km away from the Indian border town of Raxaul.
“Kumar was found carrying a huge amount of foreign currency and bank drafts,” Chaudhury said.
Amit was being brought to Kathmandu for further questioning. His aide Deepak Lama was also arrested.
The Indian embassy here declined to confirm the arrests. “We have seen the media reports, but we have no such information at this moment,” Gopal Baglay, the embassy spokesman, said.
Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula also commented on the arrest but the Chitwan police said they had no such information.
The racket, busted by the police of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on Jan 24, involved illegal transplants of kidneys obtained illegally or under force from the poor people.