Nepali police arrested an alleged French paedophile from Kathmandu Friday evening, local newspaper The Himalayan Times reported on Sunday.
According to the police, Jean Jacques Haye, 60, a French national, was nabbed from Attarkhel, Gokarna in Nepali capital Kathmandu.
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 to Nepal Police that Haye was believed to have been living incognito in Kathmandu.
Mira Choudhary, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at Metropolitan Police Circle, Balaju, Kathmandu 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 of Turkey, to avoid prosecutions.
Sita Lamichhane, 35, from Parbat district in western Nepal, 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 for his extradition to France. Nepal has signed an extradition treaty with France, according to the report.