Dr Amit Kumar, alleged kingpin in the multi-crore rupee kidney scam, was on Saturday brought to New Delhi from Kathmandu by a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation and will face charges of illegal organ transplant, wrongful confinement and cheating.
Forty-year-old Kumar was flown in by a commercial aircraft from Kathmandu and whisked away to the CBI headquarters for interrogation.
He will be produced before a local court in Delhi on Sunday where the agency would seek his remand. The CBI registered a case against Dr Kumar and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapon), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and 420 (cheating).
Dr Kumar has also been booked under The Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994.
If convicted, he may face a jail term up to 10 years.
The Nepalese authorities swiftly acceded to India's request for Kumar's deportation and handed him over to the two-member CBI team this evening in the presence of Indian Embassy officials.
Nepalese authorities, which had on Friday announced that Kumar would be produced in Kathmandu court on Sunday and slapped with three cases, agreed to hand over Kumar after the CBI team, armed with Interpol Red Corner Notice and Indian Mission, made out a strong case for his deportation.
Kumar was arrested from Hotel Wildlife Camp in Chitwan near the Indo-Nepal border on Thursday and foreign currency of Euro 145,000, $18,900 and an Indian bank draft of Rs 936,000 were seized from his possession.
The Indian doctor, who was believed to have carried out 500 illegal kidney transplants, claimed he was not a kidney dealer and had not committed any crime.
Nepalese police said after questioning Kumar that he had 'confessed' to carrying out over 300 kidney transplants in India.
Nepalese police said that Kumar 'admitted' to charging Rs three-four lakh for each transplant. He 'confessed' to looking for hospitals in Nepal through an agent Pankaj Jha, who is now absconding.
An Interpol Red Corner Notice was issued against the tainted doctor after the massive racket with inter-state and international ramifications came to light on January 24.
Police Inspector Prakash Malla, who effected his arrest, told a private television in Nepal that the Indian doctor offered up to Rs one crore to set him free.
Police said they 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.
