LEAD: Kingpin of major Indian kidney racket arrested in Nepal

(EDS: UPDATING)

Nepalese police have arrested an Indian national who is believed to be the kingpin of a major kidney transplant racket based near New Delhi, State Minister for Home Affairs Ram Kumar Chaudhari said Friday.

Police arrested Amit Kumar on Thursday evening at a hotel in the Chitwan district, 80 kilometers southwest of Kathmandu.

''He was arrested with loads of Indian rupees, euros and American dollars,'' Chaudhari said. ''Police will bring him to Kathmandu on Friday morning.''

Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal, who heads the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police, told reporters in Kathmandu later Friday that Kumar, who is wanted in India for illegally trading over 500 kidneys, may be extradited to India if such a request is received.

''We have three options,'' Aryal said. ''The first is to try him in Nepal for possessing an unauthorized amount of foreign currency, the second is to detain him to investigate his kidney racket in Nepal and the third is to hand him over to Indian authorities,'' he said.

Interpol had issued a notice against Kumar, head of Star Max Lifecare Hospital in Gurgaon in the Haryana state of India, for allegedly duping hundreds into parting with one of their kidneys while under the influence of drugs.

Kumar is alleged to have been behind a major kidney transplant network that spans across India and also into Nepal.

Police raided the hotel where Kumar was staying after suspicious hotel staff informed police that the Indian had clipped out stories in local newspapers about his presence in Nepal.

Kumar has been on the run since Indian police made arrests in Gurgaon in late January in connection with illegal kidney extractions and transplants.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Sher Bahadur Basnet, head of a special police team that nabbed Kumar, said Kumar has provided names of his Nepalese accomplices, mostly low-level staff at his hospital in Gurgaon.

He had been on the run since Indian police made arrests in Gurgaon last week in connection with illegal kidney extractions and transplants.