India on Friday said that it expected Nepal to hand over to the CBI Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin of the kidney transplant racket, at the “earliest possible” instance as police in Kathmandu claimed that the doctor has “confessed” to carrying out over 300 operations.

But Kumar, who was presented before the media, said he was not a kidney dealer and had not committed any crime.

In New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said “given the nature of the case and the close cooperation that exists between legal and security authorities between India and Nepal, we expect that Dr Amit would be handed over to the Indian authorities at the earliest possible”.

CBI has taken up the matter of Kumar’s handing over with the Nepalese government through the Indian embassy, he said.

Forty-year-old Kumar, brought to the Nepalese capital from Chitwan near the Indo-Nepal border after he was arrested from a jungle resort on Thursday, said: “I have not committed any crime. Allegations against me have been cleared in court.”

‘I’m innocent’
“I am just a doctor, not a kidney dealer. I will reveal the truth by organising a press conference after my release,” the smartly-dressed Kumar said.

Nepalese police said after questioning Kumar that he had “confessed” to carrying out over 300 kidney transplants in India.

Kumar was arrested on Thursday from Hotel Wildlife Camp in Chitwan in southern Nepal, 60 km from the Indian border, ending a fortnight-long manhunt. “I am not running away, I am defending myself,” Kumar said while charging that he was being “falsely implicated”.

The police seized a bank draft for Indian Rs 9.36 lakh and Euros 1.45 lakh and US $18,900 in cash from Kumar during his arrest.

He will be produced in a Nepalese court on Sunday and charged with violating foreign currency laws, police said.
The other two cases to be filed against him are related to the Red Corner Notice issued against him by the Interpol and conducting illegal human organ transplants under the Nepalese Act 2055, the police said, adding they were also investigating whether Kumar carried out any kidney transplants in Nepal.

Under the human organs transplant case, he can get a maximum sentence of five years or Rs 5 lakh as fine, or both, if convicted, the police said, adding he faces up to four years in jail over the foreign currency possession.
The police also recovered some fake documents from him which indicated that he was trying to acquire Nepalese citizenship and another passport apparently to help him fly to Canada to join his family there.

They said Kumar claimed that he came to Nepal from Canada on December 13 and the next day he left for India by road.

He returned to Kathmandu on January 26 by road and stayed at Hotel Radisson in Lazimpat till January 29. He then stayed at hotels in Thamel till February 5 and left for Chitwan by taxi, where he was eventually caught by Nepalese police.