KOLKATA: An inter-state kidney racket was busted after the kingpin was arrested from a nursing home in south Kolkata on Monday evening.
The accused, Wasim Akram, a resident of Bihar residing at Naihati in the northern suburbs of the city, was wanted in the kidney smuggling racket. The accused's four bank accounts with a total amount of Rs 40 lakh were frozen.
Besides, three of his flats have been located and would be sealed. Rest accused of the racket were already arrested and only Akram was at large. Police acted in a tip-off that a woman was seeking a kidney donor in a south Kolkata nursing home and Akram took the contract to supply her with the kidney. According to police sources, the accused first gave job advertisements and during interviews gauged whether the candidate would sell his kidney.
If the applicants did not agree, they were told to persuade poor people to sell their kidneys and were offered commission. The racket was most active in Malda district of West Bengal and in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused took Rs 5 lakh from the kidney seekers and gave Rs 3 lakh to the donors in cash concealed in the fruit-baskets while they were admitted to the nursing homes for transplantation.
Several nursing homes across Kolkata are under the scanner for suspected involvement in the racket.