Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (UPSTF) busted a gang of seven members who used to smuggle human blood units donated to a charitable institute in Rajasthan and sell them through blood banks in Lucknow and other parts of UP. Those arrested include owners of two blood banks in Lucknow along with five others. They were arrested from Thakurganj.
The team arrested seven miscreants, including the kingpin of the gang, and recovered 302 units of blood kept in ice bags, 21 forged documents of a charitable blood bank of Krishna Nagar, 7 mobile phones, Aadhaar, ATM and PAN cards, two cars and Rs 20,000 in cash from them.
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). They were arrested from Midlife Blood Bank and Hospital.
STF deputy SP Pramesh Shukla said that the team was tipped off about the smuggling of the human blood and a team consisting of STF sleuths and assistant commissioner, drug, Manoj Kumar and drug inspector Madhuri Singh conducted a raid at the hospital.
“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,” said Shukla.
In his confession, Naushad said he and his aides had supplied two cartons filled with blood packets to Narayani Blood Bank in Krishna Nagar and two cartons to Midlife Blood Bank.
Naushad said he completed his DMLT diploma from Ramchandra Institute of Paramedical Sciences in Prayagraj and had also worked as lab technician at Ambika Blood Bank in Jodhpur.
He also disclosed that some charitable institutes used to collect blood bags organizing 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 Rs 2,000,” said Shukla.
An STF official informed that the racketeers were linked to blood banks in different districts of Rajasthan where the practice of collecting blood illegally from different donors was prevalent. He said they purchased blood units from different blood banks of Rajasthan’s Jaipur, Chamu (Jodhpur) and Sikar districts for ₹700 and Rs800 and sold it to blood banks in Lucknow and its adjoining districts with huge margins. He said it was found that these smugglers did not even maintain cold chain required to preserve human blood.
