Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch which is inquiring into the illegal organ trade in Kerala has come out with a startling find that over 5,000 illegal organ transplants took place in the state during the last five years.
The Crime Branch suspects that the mafia involved in illegal organ transplant misguided their targets and induced them into donating organs by convincing them it was part of a government programme. The mafia likely made crores of rupees through this racket.
During the course of investigation, the probe team found that the organ transplantation mafia charged Rs 60 lakh to 1 crore from the recipients while paying only Rs 10 lakh to the organ donors. They pocketed the rest of the amount in each case.
While further investigations are progressing in the case, the role of agents, certain doctors and hospital staff have come under the scanner. The agents operating on behalf of the racket are under close observation in all districts, the Crime Branch officials said.
Thrissur likely hub
Most of the illegal activities related to organ transplant took place in Kodungallur in Thrissur district. A majority of these cases pertained to transplantation of kidney, liver, pancreas and small intestine.
Crime Branch IG S Sreejith had submitted a detailed report to DGP Loknath Behara on the entire matter following intelligence reports regarding the illegal organ transplantation taking place in the state.
The case is being investigated by Crime Branch SP K S Sudarshan under Thrissur DIG S Surendran. With the unearthing of the racket in many parts of the state, the Crime Branch plans to induct more officials into the probe team to expand the scale of investigation.
Bengaluru link too being probed
Seven persons including three foreign nationals were arrested in Bengaluru in February for duping cores of rupees promising kidneys for transplantation. The Crime Branch is probing whether the arrested persons had any links with the mafia operating in Kerala.
During the preliminary investigations, it was found that the members of Bangalore-based racket which used to approach people who required kidney transplant dropped the names of prominent doctors in the city to carry out their fraudulent activities.
More than 300 people became victims of the fraud which is carried out online through different websites.
