Amit Kumar in Kathmandu on Friday. (Himalayan Times)

Kathmandu, Feb. 8: India may have to wait sometime before Nepal deports Amit Kumar, accused of running a kidney transplant racket in Gurgaon.

Nepal police today said they would book the doctor under the country’s foreign exchange law and hinted that he would be handed over to India only at the end of investigations here.

Kumar was arrested from a jungle resort in southern Nepal last evening — with almost Rs 1.67 crore in dollars, euros and Indian rupees in his possession — and brought to Kathmandu this morning.

The police are also investigating whether Kumar, accused of taking out unsuspecting labourers’ kidneys under the guise of conducting medical tests, planned to extend the racket to Nepal, senior superintendent of police Upendranath Aryal said.

Kumar has told his interrogators he had carried out nearly 300 kidney transplants at his hospital in Gurgaon but they were all done legally, police sources said.

“I will prove my innocence at a news conference once I am released,” Kumar screamed while being presented before the media by the police this morning.

The Indian embassy has formally requested Kathmandu for a quick deportation. An Indian official said a police team from Haryana had arrived this morning and discussed the deportation procedure with Nepal police.

But Kathmandu is expected to let the legal process run its course, at least in the foreign exchange case, before handing Kumar over.

The doctor is likely to be booked on Sunday morning since tomorrow happens to be a holiday here.

Aryal said the first information report would be filed in the Kathmandu district court on Sunday morning. “The accused will also be produced in court simultaneously and booked under the foreign exchange act.”

When Kumar was arrested, he had about 145,000 euros, $18,500 and a demand draft for Rs 10 lakh in Indian currency with him, officers said. In Nepal, it is illegal to carry more than $2,000 (Rs 79,000) in foreign currency.

“We are now looking for his associate Pankaj Jha, who fled from the scene when Kumar was being arrested,” Aryal said.

Officers said Kumar had told the police he was in Nepal to scout for land and a possible partner to set up a hospital, and that this had raised the suspicion that he had been planning to carry out illegal transplants here, too.

Kumar claimed he was a frequent visitor to Nepal. Sources said he had come twice in the past two months, once while returning from Canada. His current trip began on January 26 after Gurgaon police raided his hospital and unearthed the kidney racket.

The Indian had been changing hotels in Kathmandu to avoid detection, the sources added. He was apparently planning to sneak into Bihar but was arrested some 60km from the Indian border town of Raxaul.