Kochi: The Special Investigation team of Kochi police in charge of the probe into the illegal organ harvesting from people including Malayalis reached Tamil Nadu on Sunday after recording arrest of two people. Manorama News reported that SIT headed to the neighbouring state to trace the agents as well as victims after receiving a tip-off.
The Kochi police launched a probe into the international organ trafficking racket after nabbing Sabith Nasar, an agent who lured people from Kerala, Bengaluru and Hyderabad to donate their organs by offering lakhs. The probe team will examine the financial deals of Sabith to identify the people in his network.
According to police, Sabith admitted to trafficking around 20 persons to Iran as organ donors while he was working there. He claimed that it was not done directly but through a man from Hyderabad. In his statement to police, he confirmed that all victims were from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, besides one person from the northern Palakkad district of Kerala. The police source said they had no other information about the Palakkad person who was claimed to have been victimised by the organ trafficking mafia.
According to the police, the information they received indicated that the accused, with the intention of making money, allegedly cheated the victims by trafficking them after convincing them that they would be provided with legal compensation for donating their kidneys in foreign countries.
He has been charged under IPC section 370 (trafficking of a person) and the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. He was picked up by the Nedumbassery police from the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) on May 18 following a tip-off from Central agencies. His arrest was recorded on May 19.
Meanwhile, police will approach the court seeking the custody of Sajith Shyam who was arrested on Thursday. Sajith was a close aide of Sabith, said the probe team.
(With PTI inputs)