The District Police Office in Morang is preparing to charge Dr Tapeshwar Lal Karn, a senior gynaecologist and former medical superintendent at Koshi Hospital, for three different offences—organised crime, human trafficking and forced disappearance.

Police said it also wrote a letter to the authorities concerned urging them to investigate Karn for illegally amassing property.

“We are preparing to charge him for three crimes. The legal process to file charges against him was obstructed after Karn was readmitted to the hospital following health complaints. The process of recording his statement is yet to be completed,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Ranjan Kumar Dahal, who is also the spokesman for the Morang District Police Office. Karn, aged 68, was readmitted to Koshi Hospital on Saturday.

On August 18, police detained Karn from Green Cross Hospital in Biratnagar on the charge of selling a newborn to a childless couple for Rs500,000.

Police claimed that Karn had been involved in selling babies born through illicit relationships to childless couples, some of them Indians as well, for the past 10 years. Morang police said they would also seek help from the Central Investigation Bureau in the investigation against the gynaecologist.

In the latest incident, Karn allegedly sold an infant born to an unmarried couple from Bhojpur district. A 26-year-old woman gave birth to the baby at Green Cross Hospital under Karn’s medical supervision on June 29. The infant’s father had taken his eight-month-pregnant girlfriend to Karn’s clinic. She gave birth to the infant the next day at the hospital. The incident came to light after the infant’s father ran away leaving the woman at an Itahari-based hotel.

Police investigation revealed that Karn had sold the infant to the couple of Kathari Rural Municipality-2 in Morang through a staff member working at the operation theatre of the Green Cross Hospital. The staff member is a relative of the childless couple.

The investigation is underway after taking five people, including Karn, into custody, said police. The police have been investigating some private hospitals and clinics in Biratnagar where Dr Karn worked.

Karn had worked for over two and a half decades at the Department of Gynaecology of the Koshi Hospital. He was the medical superintendent of the hospital from April 2 to September 30, 2014.