Kathmandu, March 14:

The police arrested an alleged international paedophile from Kathmandu last evening.

According to the police, Jean Jacques Haye, 60, a French national, was nabbed from Attarkhel, Gokarna. There is an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Haye. He was arrested acting on a tip-off provided by Voice of Children, an NGO working for children.

The police had been keeping a round-the-clock vigil at his suspected hideouts after Interpol wrote Nepal Police that Haye was believed to have been living incognito in Kathmandu.

Talking to The Himalayan Times, Mira Choudhary, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at Metropolitan Police Circle, Balaju, said special initiatives were taken to arrest him at the request of the Paris Police. The French police have charged Haye with sexual abuse of children. “We succeeded in apprehending the alleged French paedophile after getting a tip-off from the NGO,” she said.

Haye is said to have been hiding in Nepal for the last five years. “During interrogation, Haye said he was married to a Nepali woman and was living in Kathmandu since August last year,” said a police officer. The police officer said the alleged paedophile had managed to run away from his native land to Nepal via Istanbul, the capital of Turkey, to avoid prosecutions.

Sita Lamichhane, 35, from Parbat district, claimed she was Haye’s spouse. She said she met Haye 10 years ago and was living with him since then. “She, however, could not produce any evidence to back her claims,” said DSP Choudhary. The police said they would hand over Haye to the Department of Immigration tomorrow for his extradition to France. Nepal has signed an extradition treaty with France.

Earlier, Nepal Police had earned accolades after arresting Dr Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of India’s biggest kidney transplant racket, from Chitwan on February 6 last year.