Blood smuggling racket in UP: 6 more blood banks procured units from same suppliers

Blood units were mixed with saline water so as to increase the volume before being brought to Uttar Pradesh and being sold to different private and charitable blood banks

LUCKNOW Six more blood banks in Lucknow and five other districts of Uttar Pradesh procured blood units from the same gang of seven members who used to smuggle human blood units donated to a charitable institute in Rajasthan and sell them through different blood banks in Lucknow and other parts of UP, said officials on Friday.

One of the two blood suppliers, Naushad, was working at Ambika Blood Bank of Jodhpur, Rajasthan as lab technician in 2018. He learnt the tricks of the trade and later earned huge profits allegedly through illegal supply of blood. (Pic for representation)

On Thursday, the UP Special Task Force (STF) had busted this gang and arrested seven of its members in Lucknow. Those arrested were identified as Ajeet Dubey, owner of Narayani Blood Bank, Barabirwa, Mohd Ammar, owner of Midlife Blood Bank and Hospital and technicians of the two blood banks, Karan Mishra and Sandip Kumar. Another accused Rohit kumar was an employee of the Midlife blood bank. Two smugglers Asad and Naushad Ahmad were also arrested.

Asad and Naushad, who smuggled blood from different blood banks in Rajasthan, revealed the names of six other blood banks that procured blood units from the gang, said STF officials.

“Apart from Midlife Blood Bank and Narayani Blood Bank, Manav Blood Bank of Krishna Nagar, Lucknow, City Charitable Blood Bank of Unnao, Universal Blood Bank of Sandila, Hardoi, Abha Blood Bank of Fathepur, Hasan Blood Centre of Bahraich and Maa Anjali Blood Bank of Kanpur also procured blood units from the same blood suppliers, as revealed by the duo during rigorous interrogation,” claimed an STF official.

He said the drugs administration department was asked to initiate further action against these blood banks.

The official said one of the two blood suppliers, Naushad, was working at Ambika Blood Bank of Jodhpur, Rajasthan as lab technician in 2018. He learnt the tricks of the trade and later earned huge profits allegedly through illegal supply of blood. Naushad had done Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology (DMLT) from Ram Chandra Institute of Paramedical Science, Prayagraj, in 2018.

He came in contact with several lab technicians of different blood banks in Rajasthan and learnt that blood units were collected through blood donation camps organised by different charitable trusts. Later, these units were sold to different blood suppliers by not making entries in the blood banks, said the official.

These blood units were later mixed with saline water so as to increase the quantity and maintain their freshness before being brought to Uttar Pradesh and being sold to different private and charitable blood banks. The suppliers stored blood units in cartons while transporting the same from Rajasthan to UP and did not maintain cold chain mandatory for healthy blood.