Nepal police hunt for alleged leader in organ trafficking

Police Nepal said yesterday they were hunting for the alleged mastermind of India's biggest illegal kidney transplant racket amid reports he was hiding out in the Himalayan nation.

"We are investigating Amit Kumar's possible presence and links here in Kathmandu," said Upendra Kanta Aryal, a senior police officer.

Indian reported that Kumar, aged 40 and the subject of an Interpol notice, fled to Nepal after the multimillion-dollar scandal was uncovered last month.

But Nepali police would not confirm the Indian fugitive's presence in the Himalayan country.

"At the moment, we can't say whether or not he is in Nepal, but we have begun our investigations," said Aryal, the head of Kathmandu's crime investigation department.

Last week Interpol issued notices for the arrest of Kumar and his brother, saying the two are the "subject of national arrest warrants for illegal transplanting of kidneys, cheating and criminal conspiracy."

"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 theater," 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 up to two million rupees (US$50,000) for a kidney from clients from across the globe, local police said.

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.

India's neighbor 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.

"At least half a dozen middle men are working here in Kathmandu taking kidney donors to India for transplants," said Deepak Adhikari, an investigative journalist with the weekly Nepal magazine.

"Its a big operation here," he said.

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.