By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Less than 24 hours after being arrested from a jungle resort in Nepal, alleged kidney scam mastermind Amit Kumar was Friday slapped with the charge of violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, which could get him four years in prison and a fine of over Nepali Rs.4 million (approx $630,000).
Upendra Kant Arryal, senior superintendent of police at the Metropolitan Police Crime Division in Kathmandu who had headed the manhunt for Amit Kumar in Nepal, said the Indian, dubbed “Dr Horror” after his massive illegal kidney transplant racket in north India’s Gurgaon town came to light last month, was put in police custody following his arrest in a dramatic swoop Thursday.
Though Arryal said during the preliminary interrogation Amit Kumar had admitted to have conducted at least 300 kidney transplants in his Star Max Life Care nursing home in Gurgaon, when confronted with reporters in Kathmandu, the short, balding man was belligerent.
“I have not done anything wrong,” he told the crowd. “I have not duped anyone.”
Amit Kumar, alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut, would be produced in court Sunday, where he would be formally charged.
“He was carrying foreign currency worth nearly Nepali Rs.1.5 crore (Rs.15 million),” Arryal told the packed police briefing room overflowing with photographers, journalists and police personnel Friday.
“He did not inform the Nepali authorities that he was carrying foreign currency over the allowed amount.”
When a police team, alerted that the fugitive doctor for whose arrest Interpol had issued a red corner notice had checked into the Wildlife Lodge in Chitwam national park Thursday, arrested him, it confiscated two suitcases and a small fortune in foreign currency.
Police found the Indian to be carrying $18,900, 145,000 euros, travellers’ cheques worth $5,000, a draft for Indian Rs.933,500 and a Life Insurance Corporation cheque for Rs.46,680.
He also had three mobile telephones, his passport, an air ticket for Canada and 10 passport size photographs, indicating he was planning to escape from Nepal to a safer hideout abroad.
In Nepal, a traveller has to declare to the authorities if he is carrying more than $2,000 in foreign currency.
Arryal said the charge could fetch Amit Kumar a jail term of up to four years and a fine of four times the amount he was carrying illegally.
However, the forex violation is just the first legal ground to keep Amit Kumar behind bars while graver allegations against him are investigated fully.
Transplant of human organs is a punishable offence in Nepal, meriting maximum five years in prison and a fine of up to Rs.500,000.
Arryal said police would now fully investigate if Amit Kumar had conduced any clandestine transplants in Nepal or had duped any Nepalis into parting with a kidney under fraudulent promises.
Even after all investigations are complete and the law has taken its own course in Nepal, he will not be able to walk out a free man.
Arryal said police would then consider the Interpol alert and deport him to India, where he would be handed over to the Indian authorities for legal action in his own country.