The Nepal government hurriedly extradited Dr. Amit Kumar as soon as his arrest in Nepal. The arrestee had hit the media headlines in India recently. He was one of those belonging to the most wanted list of the Indian police because they had been searching for him in connection with the illegal kidney transplant and smuggling in India.
Hundreds of children are abducted every year in India for stealing their kidneys. So many Indian citizens suffering from extreme poverty unknowingly lose their kidneys to kidney smugglers. Uneducated and poor Indian citizens admitted to different hospitals operated by the chains of kidney smugglers are most likely to lose their kidney. Nobody wants to lose their kidneys. But it happens without the hospitalized patients’ knowledge. Thus, kidney theft and its illicit trade has been a serious contagion in bigger cities of India.
However, ordinary Indians often complain that the Indian police indulge more in bribe taking than trying to control such a serious crime. Controlling such a crime requires the honesty in law application mechanisms because only policy documentation is not sufficient in this context. It requires no further elaboration that the level of corruption existing in law application mechanisms proves to be a fatal barrier to the process of de-criminalization.
In this context, the mass media, too, have a special role of encouraging anti-crime advocacy. Superficial coverage on criminal incidents may have a value in acquiring preliminary information and for follow-up purposes. But the mass media have to give much importance to the task of exposing vital facts about crimes and criminal gangs. It is a highly risky business for media professionals. Nevertheless, they cannot evade this social responsibility.
As Dr. Amit Kumar had been arrested in Nepal, the Nepal police had to go through systematic investigations to detect possibly unexposed kidney stealing and smuggling activities done by Nepali gangs linked to the arrestee.
There are many private hospitals in Nepal whose activities are not very transparent. The Nepal police was supposed to honestly investigate into any possibilities before extraditing him to the Indian side. Just because the Indian Administration asked for the quick extradition of Dr. Amit Kumar, the Nepal police, corresponding to the country’s existing laws, should not have glossed over the need of investigating them with a view to unfolding any mystery.
The possibility of his involvement in similar activities could not be denied as the past criminal trends in different other cases show the collaboration of both Indian and Nepali criminal gangs. The open border between Nepal and India always creates a situation for a doubt of the collaboration of Indian and Nepali criminals. Therefore, the extradition of the arrestee without necessary investigation on the side of the Nepal government was legally, socially and morally wrong.
There are media reports in Kathmandu that Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Home Minister Krishna Sitaula, pressurized by the Indian authorities, ordered the police to immediately extradite Dr. Amit Kumar to India. Nepal’s existing laws never allow anybody to give a direct order to extradite a suspect arrested with bundles of illegal currency.
It is surprising that although Dr. Amit Kumar was suspected of being involved in the illicit kidney transplant and smuggling also in Nepal, the Nepal government evaded the most required investigation that could expose several other organized criminal gangs active in Nepal.
Some even doubt the nearest and dearest of Nepal’s prime minister and home minister might be linked to Dr. Amit Kumar’s chains.
The ordinary Nepalis question – why did the Nepal government hurriedly extradite Dr. Amit Kumar (a person arrested with an illegal amount of foreign currency) without legally essential investigation? The concerned side in Nepal has shirked its responsibility of answering such a public question.
Only psycho-pragmatic transformation in Nepal’s investigative and security mechanisms can bring about much improvement in similar cases in the future.