KOCHI: Police have exposed an international organ trafficking racket with Kerala links, with the probe finding that several youths from Hyderabad and Bengaluru were trafficked to Iran for kidney transplantation. The shocking revelations followed the arrest of a Thrissur native and the detention of another in Kochi over the past two days.
The racket is believed to have lured scores of people from financially weak sections to donate organs abroad. As per the statements of the arrested person, a few people who were taken to Iran for organ donation died there. Central agencies, including NIA, are also investigating the case, and they have completed the preliminary probe, said sources.
While Sabith Nasar, 30, of Valapad in Thrissur — a suspected member of the organ trafficking racket — was arrested from the Kochi airport on Sunday, another youth, a Kochi native, who allegedly assisted Sabith, was taken into custody and interrogated by the police on Monday.
Sabith, who has been remanded in judicial custody, reportedly confessed to police that he took 20 people from India to Iran for organ harvesting.
As per the remand report in possession of TNIE, Sabith told the police that he was part of a racket recruiting people from India for kidney transplantation illegally. “Youths from Hyderabad and Bengaluru were recruited to Iran as kidney donors,” said the report produced by the police before the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Monday.
The recruited youths were admitted to a private hospital in Iran, where they donated kidneys to suitable recipients. They were then treated for three days at the hospital. Subsequently, the donors were provided a 20-day stay at a flat and then flown back to India, the report said.
“The donors are paid up to Rs 6 lakh for the donation. He confessed that Shameer, a youth from Thirunellayi in Palakkad, had donated a kidney this way about six months ago,” said the report. Shameer was facing a severe financial crisis and may have donated a kidney to settle his debts, it said.
Meanwhile, officers said more arrests are likely in connection with the case.
Accused’s fin dealings under scanner
The Nedumbassery police, who interrogated the youth taken into custody, have not recorded his arrest yet.
According to sources, the police will also interrogate a Valapad native, who was a roommate of Sabith in Kochi. Investigators said the financial dealings and links of Sabith in Kerala will be investigated in detail, considering the international implications of the case.
Though Sabith confessed that he recruited 20 people from the country to Iran for organ donation, the police are looking into whether more people were lured by the accused.
Sources said the racket also included some people from Hyderabad.Sabith told the police that he first acquainted himself with a Hyderabad native in connection with kidney donation for a Delhi native, and subsequently met others who took him into the organ trade.
The police have begun an investigation into these suspected persons.The police also suspect that Sabith recruited some migrant workers arriving in Kerala with fake Aadhar and other identity cards to Iran for the organ deal. Sabith has been charged under Section 370 of the IPC (human trafficking) and Section 19 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (commercial dealings with human organs).
He was arrested upon his arrival from Iran via Kuwait on Sunday.
Officials from the Bureau of Immigration detained him on suspicion of being part of network trafficking vulnerable individuals for organ harvesting and transplantation and handed him over to police.