Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel nabbed five members of a syndicate for their alleged involvement in illegal kidney trading.
The arrestees were identified as ringleader Shahriar Imran, 36, Md Tajul Islam alias Taju, 38, Md Mehedi Hasan, 24, Md Saiful Islam, 28, and Md Abdul Mannan, 45. They were arrested from different parts of Dhaka and Joypurhat.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, RAB's Legal and Media Wing Assistant Director ANM Imran Khan disclosed it at a press briefing in the city on Tuesday.
Key accused Imran is also an admin of a Facebook page used for illegal organ trading.
Their activities were operated through various Facebook pages including ‘Bangladesh Kidney O Liver Patient Chikitsa Seba’ and ‘Kidney Liver Chikitsa Seba.’ The gang has so far trafficked over 100 people.
RAB also seized several passports, visa-related documents, five mobile phones, and both local and foreign currencies from their possessions.
Shahriar Imran used to run these Facebook pages. There are at least six cases filed against him for illegal organ trafficking.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin said, “We came to know that the racket has total 15-20 members. They used to run their operations in three separate groups. The first group was assigned to contact wealthy patients in the capital using different social media platforms. The second group used to identify the poor, helpless people from the rural areas of the country. The third group was assigned to bring them to Dhaka and complete all hospital-related formalities including crosshatching for the transplantation.”
According to the RAB official, they (the kidney racket members) used to charge Tk15-Tk20 lakh for each kidney. However, the donors used to get only Tk 3-4 lakh for their organs. Of the amount, Tk 2 lakh was paid in advance.
This syndicate did not provide any kind of papers to both the donors and the recipients in a bid to dodge law enforcers.