By IANS
New Delhi : Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of the kidney transplant racket arrested in Nepal, will be extradited to India at the earliest, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said Friday.
“We have very good relations with our neighbour Nepal. These relations go back to centuries. It will not be a problem in extraditing Dr Amit Kumar,” Jaiswal said.
A formal request for extradition has already been sent through the requisite official channel, officials said, adding that it might take up to a fortnight for the process to be completed.
India and Nepal had initialled a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and Extradition Treaty in January 2005.
Asked how Kumar alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut, arrested from a hotel on the India-Nepal border Thursday evening, managed to cross over to Nepal, Jaiswal said: “The Indo-Nepal border is porous as we all know. He made use of this. But this does not mean the present condition should continue. We will have to take some measures to control crossing of the border.”
Amit Kumar, prime accused in the multimillion kidney transplant scam in Moradabad, Gurgaon and other cities of India, was arrested Thursday.
Officials admitted that the Indian government’s optimism on his extradition may be misplaced as the Nepal government might decide to try him for violating Nepalese laws and then hand him over to India.