THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The home department has issued a directive to constitute a special police team to investigate organised organ trafficking using fabricated documents. The special team will be led by Ernakulam rural SP K S Sudarshan, a press release from the office of Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said.
The police have been conducting an investigation into the functioning of organised rackets and have so far unearthed several cases of illegal organ transplantation.
Three cases have been registered so far on this front and the kingpin of the racket, Muhammed Najeeb, his wife Rasheeda, and their accomplices Sinoj and Asif were arrested.
During the raids at their places, the police had recovered documents bearing phoney letter heads of politicians and MLAs.
The communique from the Home Minister’s office said it became clear that illegal organ transplantations occurred in several hospitals in Ernakulam and in the wake of that it was decided to constitute a team of cops led by an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police.
To transfer hawala, crypto cases to central agencies
The home department has also decided to transfer the cases registered by the police in Koduvally, Kakkur and Thamarassery in connection with cyber financial fraud, crypto currency scams and hawala transactions to central agencies for further investigation.
The decision came after it was assessed that the hawala network ran a parallel financial ecosystem and their activities were rampant. The statement issued by the Home Minister’s office said mule accounts were used for the illegal financial transactions.
Koduvally, Thamarassery, Kakkur, Kaithapoyil and Vencheri have become a hotspot of cyber financial criminals, it added. There were hints that the money earned through nefarious means were utilised for narcotic trade, anti-national and terrorist activities and hence it was decided to hand over the cases to central agencies.