Indian kidney racket 'mastermind' held in Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal: New Delhi will request Nepal to extradite an Indian wanted for allegedly masterminding a kidney transplant racket, Indian embassy officials in Nepal said on Friday.

India will "put in a formal request to the concerned authorities in Nepal to hand him over to Indian authorities," they said.

Nepalese police arrested the 40-year-old suspect Amit Kumar at a resort in Chitwan National Park, southwest of Kathmandu on Thursday evening.

Indian investigators are seeking access to question Kumar while Nepalese authorities investigate whether he was also involved in illegal kidney transplants in Nepal.

"He was sitting in the lobby of the hotel from where we arrested him," police officer Kiran Gautam said from Hetauda, the biggest town in the region.

Kumar's racket was uncovered in India's city of Gurgaon last month, with media reports that hundreds of poor labourers may have been duped into donating organs to wealthy clients.

The case was one of the largest transplant rackets reported in India in recent years and has led to calls for the government to stop backstreet operations.