By IANS,
Lucknow : Lucknow Police Monday raided a private pathology lab in the state capital where the six men arrested Saturday normally supplied adulterated blood, officials said.
Police Saturday arrested six people from a hideout in Thakurganj area of the state capital and recovered nearly 100 units of blood from them.
Initial investigations in the adulterated blood trading racket in Lucknow has revealed the involvement of many hospitals and blood banks, police said.
“We raided Umrai Pathology today (Monday) afternoon and recovered over half a dozen blood pouches from here. We have also recovered equipments used to collect blood,” police inspector Abhishek Sirohi said.
According to police sources, the pathology lab located in the Sarojininagar area in Lucknow is owned by U.B. Singh, who is a practicing pathologist in the state government’s Balrampur Hospital.
Police sources added that over a dozen private nursing homes and pathology labs will be raided soon.
According to Additional Superintendent of Police Vinay Chandra, the gang used to buy blood from professional donors like drug addicts, rickshaw pullers, and beggars and mixed saline water in it to make three units from one unit of blood. This was sold at Rs.1,000-1,500 per unit.
“Besides blood, we also recovered pouches of plasma from their hideout where they collected blood. It is impossible for an untrained person to extract plasma from blood and the involvement of some doctors and pathologists has also come to light,” Chandra added.
Besides the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), the name of some high profile private hospitals has also come to light for their alleged involvement in the blood racket.
“Earlier, they used to buy empty blood bank wrappers from the CSMMU at a cost of Rs.100 per piece. A few months ago, they started getting the wrappers printed in a printing press in Basti district. Besides private hospitals, the name of some private blood banks has also come to light and more arrests are expected soon,” Chandra said.
He said the police had clues that some prominent private blood banks in the Aliganj, Vikasnagar, Mahanagar areas of the capital and around the CSMMU campus were also involved in the racket and their names would soon be made public.
The CSMMU vice-chancellor has admitted that the racket is going on since long.
“A few days ago, policemen on the CSMMU outpost nabbed two people who were trying to sell blood to a person on the campus. It is possible that some of the college staff are also involved in the racket,” CSMMU Vice-Chancellor Saroj Chooramani Gopal said.
Chandra said that according to information given by gang leader Deepak Pandey, there were over two dozen people involved in the illegal trade.
“While we managed to arrest six, eight others managed to escape. Efforts are on to nab them,” the police officer added.
Though there was no official confirmation, police sources said the six arrested men had confessed that on several occasions they had duped gullible customers by giving them pouches containing animal blood.
“We have sent the blood samples for testing. Let’s see what the reports suggest,” Superintendent of Police (West) Paresh Pandey said.