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.

THE RUN ENDS: A Nepali minister confirmed that Amit Kumar has been arrested.

How the kidney racket unfolded:

The following is the chronology of events in the kidney racket that was unearthed two weeks ago and whose kingpin Amit Kumar was arrested in Kathmandu on Thursday.

Jan 24: Police teams of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh jointly swoop down a residential building and a guesthouse allegedly owned by Amit Kumar alias Santosh Rameshwar Raut in a plush area of Gurgaon, an emerging IT hub on the outskirts of national capital.

Jan 24: The Moradabad police arrest doctor Upendra Aggarwal, a key accused in the scam, from a Palwal hotel in Faridabad area, while the Gurgaon police arrest four agents identified as Pappu, Nosad, Gayasu Deen (residents of Meerut) and Jagdish of Ballabhgarh - from Amit's residence-cum-hospital in Gurgaon's Sector 23.

Jan 24: Police rescue five people - identified as Sakil of Ghaziabad, Vasim of Ahmedabad, Salim of Kotwali and Ajay and Sanjay Kumar of Meerut from the Gurgaon hospital.

Jan 25: Gurgaon police detain five foreigners, Joy Mehtal, 53, his wife Sonam Joy, 52, a US-based NRI couple, and three Greek citizens Leonida Dayasi, 56, Leonidas Dayasi, 63, and Heleni Kitcocy, 53, in the guesthouse. Joy Mehtal and Heleni Kitcocy were patients and the others were accompanying them.

Jan 25: Gurgaon police chief Mahender Lal reveals that the accused were involved in 600 illegal kidneys transplants.

Jan 25: Lal reveals that Amit Kumar and his brother Jeewan Kumar, Upendra Aggarwal (physician) and Saraj Kumar (anaesthesiologist) - had been arrested thrice earlier on the charges of illegal human organ transplants in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra but were let off on bail.

Jan 26: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeks a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

Jan 28: IMA sets up a three-member committee to probe the matter.

Jan 28: Gurgaon police uncover two more hospitals and 10 laboratories in the national capital region (NCR) allegedly involved in the racket. Mohit Hospital in Greater Noida and another hospital in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh are raided.

Jan 28: Eight luxury cars that ferried the patients are seized. Lal said eight bank accounts where the doctors and their assistants stashed away their earnings were identified. The roots of network were found to extend to Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

SPILLING THE BEANS: The Haryana and Delhi police were accused of complicity in the case.

Jan 29: Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss seeks a CBI probe and calls for amendment in the organ transplant law. Gurgaon police detain the wife and in-laws of Jeewan Kumar and write to the authorities for issuance of an Interpol red corner notice against Jeewan Kumar and Amit. Police reveal the brothers were not qualified doctors to perform surgeries.

Jan 29: Income tax and drug authorities swing into action, conducting raids at the Sector 23 Palam Vihar residence where the accused clandestinely carried out kidney transplantations on Indian and international clients.

Jan 30: Gurgaon police arrest Pooja, wife of Jeewan Kumar, and Amit's driver Umesh on charges of criminal conspiracy and helping the accused in running the racket. Police for the first time admit the accused were tipped-off about their possible arrest.

Jan 31: Gurgaon police arrest four people, including nurse Linda, two cooks and a driver. The Moradabad police conduct searches at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and Batra hospital, but both deny any involvement.

Feb 1: An Interpol alert sounded against Amit and Jeewan. The Moradabad police reveal mobster Chhota Shakeel threatened Amit. Police say Amit acted in three B-grade Bollywood flicks and even produced several such films. The Haryana government recommends a CBI probe.

Feb 2: Aggarwal reveals that a politician from Haryana had inaugurated Amit's Gurgaon hospital Jan 26, 1997. Gurgaon police arrest an Alwar-based doctor K.K. Aggarwal for his links in racket. Police also arrest nurse Rebecca, an accomplice of Amit.

Feb 4: Gurgaon police blame Delhi counterparts for letting off the kidney kingpin accused after taking a hefty bribe.

Feb 7: Faridabad police books Upendra Aggarwal for the deaths of three Turkish nationals in his Ballabhgarh hospital.

Feb 7: Nepal police arrested Amit from a hotel near the Indian border.

Does Amit has connection with formed Prime Minister VP Singh:

NOT ME: VP Singh said he didn't knew who the ex-PM was in whose house Amit had stayed.

Former prime minister VP Singh on Thursday dismissed report of any link between him and Amit Kumar, the kingpin of the multi-crore kidney transplant racket.

"I don't know who is the former prime minister in whose residence Amit had stayed. The police should give clear information in this regard," Singh said in New Delhi.

Singh, who suffered kidney problems, said many people had offered him kidney in the past and "I can get the kidney even today if I wish so".

Earlier one of the key accused, Dr Upender, had claimed that Amit Kumar was close to two former prime ministers.

However, the Moradabad police, who are interrogating Dr Upender, did not reveal the names on the two ex-prime ministers.

Nepal police arrested Amit Kumar on Thursday evening and the Indian authorities are trying to bring him back.

But it may still take two to three days to bring the brain behind the multi-crore kidney transplant racket, from Nepal to India, a senior Haryana police official said on Thursday night.

"It will take around two to three days to get him back to India," Joint Commissioner of Police of Gurgaon Manjit Alawat was quoted as saying by the PTI.

Officials said that a few formalities must be completed before Kumar could be brought back.

They explained that the process starts with officials of Indian Embassy in Nepal getting consular access to meet the arrested person and establishes his identity.

It was only after a positive identification that India would request Nepal for extradition of the arrested person, a spokesman of Indian Embassy said in Kathmandu.

India and Nepal have a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) signed in 1953 on transfer of persons arrested for some alleged crime in each other's territory, a court in Nepal has to be moved where it will have to be proved that the arrested person is prima facie guilty of the crime he is charged with.

-----
Donate Food for Needy Indians: