Police arrest kidney scam fugitive

from ninemsn.com.au

http://news.ninemsn.com.au:80/article.aspx?id=377324

Police arrest kidney scam fugitive: official
Friday Feb 8 05:23 AEDT
Police in Nepal are holding a man who is believed to have masterminded India's biggest illegal kidney transplant racket, officials said.

Indian national Amit Kumar was arrested at a hotel at Sauraha town in Chitwan province Thursday evening, said Kiran Gautam, police deputy inspector general, told AFP by phone.

The 40-year-old was staying at the Hotel Wildlife Resort in Sauraha, when police made the search, Gautam said from Chitwan, 80 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.

Indian media reported that Kumar fled to Nepal after the multi-million-dollar scandal was uncovered last month.

Last week international police organisation Interpol issued arrest notices for Kumar and his brother Jeevan Rawat, 36 "for illegal transplanting of kidneys, cheating and criminal conspiracy."

Gautam said: "Police searched the hotel after they received information that the Indian national was staying in the hotel."

He added that Kumar had confessed about his illegal kidney business to police during preliminary investigation.

"He (Amit Kumar) will be sent to Kathmandu early Friday morning for further investigation," Gautam said.

He also said police recovered some euros, dollars and Indian currency from in the raid Kumar.

"It is believed that during the past eight years around 500 people were forcibly operated on and their kidneys transplanted to foreign patients in a secret operating theatre," the global police body said.

Six people have been arrested in India over the scandal.

The men behind the illegal operation are believed to have charged clients from around the world up to two million rupees (50,000 dollars) for a kidney, according to Indian police.

The kidneys are believed to have come from impoverished migrant workers, some of whom have said they were kidnapped and drugged — although police say the illegal donors were likely to have been paid around 40,000 rupees.

Nepal has a well-established trade in human organs that annually sees hundreds of poor Nepalis taken south across the open border with India to sell their kidneys.

Under Indian law, kidney transplants are allowed only if the organ is donated by a blood relative or spouse, or there is a swap agreement between two needy families. All transplants must also be cleared by the government.

But a huge gap between demand and supply of kidneys because of few body donations has resulted in a flourishing illegal trade.