E-Paper
Blood racket busted in Prayagraj: A dozen involved in collecting, selling blood illegally arrested
The gang had been active in Prayagraj for many years and used to take blood from poor people and even from drug addicts
The Georgetown police busted a gang involved in illegal smuggling and selling of blood and arrested 12 members of the gang, including the kingpin, on Wednesday. Large quantities of blood, medical kits, fake receipts of blood banks and documents were recovered from their possession.
The gang had been active in Prayagraj for many years and used to take blood from poor people and even from drug addicts and sell it to the needy in return for a hefty amount. Set parameters were largely ignored. The gang members also used to give fake receipts of different blood banks to people, police said.
SP, city, Santosh Kumar Meena, said that following a tip-off, the Georgetown police under SHO Brajesh Kumar Singh arrested the kingpin, Shaan Mohammad, 31 and gang members Mohd Imran, 21, Haneef, 28, Sandeep Kumar, 26, Dinkar Tripathi, 47, Prabhakar Patel, 20, Rajnish Kumar, 25, Ashish Yadav, 21, Vimlesh Yadav, 28, Sachin Yadav, 23, Vishal Pathak, 22 and Anil Kumar Mishra, 62. The gang basically belongs to Georgetown and other areas of Prayagraj while some belong to Azamgarh and Jaunpur districts.
At least 128 units of human blood with slip of TB Sapru Hospital, a car, eight receipt booklets of TB Sapru Hospital, 350 fake slips of blood bags of different blood banks, 20 blood bags, 85 used bottles used for taking blood samples, 8 empty bottles along with prescription of different hospitals of the city were recovered from possession of the gang members.
During questioning the gang members told the police that they were active in the city since 2019. Some gang members used to arrange for people from whom blood was taken while others arranged for customers. Some used to take the blood from people and collect them in blood bags and store them in refrigerators. Poor people and drug addicts were given ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 in return for a unit of blood.
The gang members used to take samples of blood for identifying the blood group and take out blood in their car using the medical kit. No other tests were carried out and all parameters and guidelines were ignored while collecting blood. The other members of the gang used to contact attendants of patients who were in urgent need of blood for their ill family members and could not find blood at the blood banks of the city for any reason. A single unit of blood was sold to them for ₹7,000 to ₹10,000 depending on rarity of blood group and availability.
The gang members used fake slips of different blood banks on blood bags to ensure that the blood was accepted at different government and private hospitals. Evidence of selling 500 units of blood was found with gang members but it is suspected that they had sold thousands of units of blood to needy people in the last few years, police officials said.
A lovers’ tiff that ended it all
The notorious gang came to light after the kingpin of the gang, Shan Mohammad, had a tiff with his girlfriend, with whom he was in a live-in relationship. The woman called the police control room after a fight in their rented house in Georgetown. Shan was detained while the woman gave clues about his activities to the police, officials said.
