New Delhi, Aug 19 (Inditop.com) Delhi police Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in illicit trading in human blood by arresting six persons, among them a security guard of the city’s prestigious Safdarjung Hospital.
The police got a whiff of the racket when they received a complaint from a man who was unable to arrange blood units for his two-year-old daughter. Vinod Kumar came in contact with the alleged kingpin, Mahesh Kumar, who assured him a unit of blood for Rs.2000 and in turn introduced him to his associates Ankur and Gaurav.
“Vinod Kumar was recently operated upon for an ailment and because of this was unable to donate blood for his daughter. He paid Rs.1500 and gave his wrist watch to them. But they cheated him and failed to give blood. Despite his poor condition, he had to finally donate his own blood to save his daughter’s life,” said a senior police officer.
Kumar then complained to police about the incident Tuesday.
“The accused Mahesh Kumar, Satish Kumar, Kailash Singh, Gaurav Kumar, Ankur and Safdarjung Hospital’s security guard Lal Bahadur were arrested from Safdarjung Hospital and AIIMS with the help of the complainant,” the police officer said.
“It was revealed that Kumar was introduced by Lal Bahadur to the Mahesh Kumar for arranging blood. The guard was also paid Rs.200 for the deal,” the police officer added.
During questioning it was revealed that Kailash and Mahesh were actively involved in kidney transplant rackets also and were arrested twice during 2004 and 2006 respectively.
Investigation is on to find out whether there was a nexus between the blood bank, hospital administration, security staff and others, or if there is a larger network behind it, police sources said.
“Their involvement cannot be ruled out at this stage because all these accused persons were working openly,” the officer further said.
The police are also scrutinizing blood bank records of the hospital.
The police have so far recovered filled and unfilled blood donation forms of Safdarjung Hospital, three mobile hand sets with “important” telephone numbers and several diaries containing details of professional donors, clients and other hospital authorities.
