Lucknow, July 1 The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has busted a gang of seven members who smuggled human blood units donated to a charitable institute in Rajasthan and sell them through blood banks in Lucknow and other parts of the state.
Those arrested include owners of two blood banks in Lucknow along with five others, who were arrested from Thakurganj late on Thursday.
The STF team also recovered 302 units of blood kept in ice bags, 21 forged documents of a charitable blood bank of Krishna Nagar, seven mobile phones, Aadhaar, ATM and PAN cards, two cars and Rs 20,000 in cash from the accused.
Those arrested were identified as Naushad (kingpin) of Kushinagar district, Asad of Chowk in Lucknow, Rohit of Unnao (an employee of a private hospital), Karan Mishra of Madiaon in Lucknow (a technician of a private hospital), Mohammad Ammar of Bazaarkhala (owner of the private hospital Midlife Blood Bank and Hospital), Sandeep Kumar of Gudamba (employee of a blood bank) and Ajeet Dubey of Krishna Nagar (owner of Narayni blood bank).
All the seven accused were arrested from Midlife Blood Bank and Hospital.
STF Deputy Superintendent of Police, Pramesh Shukla said that the team was tipped off about the smuggling of human blood.
"The team found a car laden with packets filled with blood stopped at the gate of the hospital and two of the accused carried the cartons filled with blood packets inside the blood bank at the hospital. Two other miscreants remained seated in the car. The team rounded them all and interrogated them. They disclosed the names of their aides and the police arrested them also," the police officer added.
In his confession, Naushad said he and his aides had supplied two cartons filled with blood packets to Narayni Blood Bank in Krishna Nagar and two cartons to Midlife Blood Bank.
He also disclosed that some charitable institutes used to collect blood bags organising blood camps in Rajasthan and used to sell these blood bags at higher rates to smugglers using forged documents.
He said that he and his aides were supplying the blood bags in Lucknow, Bahraich, Unnao, Hardoi and other districts procuring them from different cities in Rajasthan.
"Naushad used to purchase the blood bags for Rs 700-800 each which is the market price and later sold these bags at a higher rate of around Rs 1,500 to 2,000," Shukla said.
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