Malda: Police have busted a racket involved in the illegal sale of blood at the Malda Medical College & Hospital (MMCH) and arrested eight persons in the past one month.
According to police sources, five persons were arrested between August 22 and 30 for illegally dealing in blood. One of them was from Murshidabad district.
“We received complaints from the organizers of the voluntary blood donation camps that brokers were active at the premises of the blood bank in MMCH. They contact donors and urge them to donate blood, citing humanitarian grounds. Later, they scout for patients who need blood, and families and relatives of such patients are asked to pay money for the blood which was donated voluntarily by people who are unaware that their blood would be sold,” said a senior police officer.
Based on the complaint, the Englishbazar police station initiated a probe and made the arrests.
On October 23, the police nabbed Darpan Ghosh, a resident of the Malanchapally area of the town from the blood bank.
He was interrogated and based on the information shared by him, Amit Saha of BS Road was arrested on October 24 and Supriyo Dey of Malanchapally was arrested on October 26.
“We are trying to find out whether others were involved. Our officers are probing whether the racket was active in other state-run health establishments of the district,” the officer added.
