By IANS
Kathmandu/New Delhi : Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of the illegal kidney transplant racket, was handed over to Indian authorities Saturday afternoon and was being taken to New Delhi.
Amit Kumar, alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut, the man allegedly behind 600 illegal kidney transplants, was arrested Thursday evening from a hotel near the India-Nepal border and was brought to capital Kathmandu early Friday for interrogation.
Kathmandu’s Metropolitan Police handed him over to India after extradition formalities. Amit Kumar accompanied by Indian officials was put on the Indian flight IC 814 to Delhi in the afternoon.
In India, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was waiting to interrogate him.
Earlier, CBI Director Vijay Shanker told IANS: “Amit Kumar is likely to be brought to India tonight (Saturday).”
CBI sources said its two inspectors were presently completing formalities in Nepal.
Sources in the external affairs ministry said formalities of handing Amit Kumar over to Indian authorities were on and they were expecting him here Saturday night.
They said the Nepalese government had agreed to hand him over to the Indian officials in the afternoon.
Amit Kumar and his associates allegedly obtained kidneys illegally, often by force, from poor people and then transplanted them to needy patients who could pay their exorbitant charges.
The racket, which served clients from Britain, the US, Greece, Lebanon, Canada,Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among other countries, was busted Jan 24 in Gurgaon, a booming suburban town of Delhi.