2 ‘human organ traffickers’ held

Police in two separate drives arrested two alleged human organ traffickers from different areas of Gobindaganj upazila of the district on Friday and the day before.

The arrestees are Ziaur Rahman Zia, 34, of Baratta village, and Abdur Rahim Uddin, 37, of Teliher village in the upazila.

AKM Mehedi Hasan, officer-in-charge (OC) of Gobindaganj Police Station, said on secret information, a police team, led by Inspector Imran Rubel, in-charge of Bairagirhat police outpost, raided Baratta village in Rajaher union on Friday and arrested Zia from his house.

One of the victims, Hazrat Ali of Baratta, filed a case with the police station against Zia last month, said the OC.       

According to the case statement, taking advantage of Hazrat’s poverty, three months ago, Zia gave him an idea of making a big amount of money by donating a kidney.

Zia then took Hazrat to Dhaka and handed him over to another member of the trafficking gang.

After making passports and completion of medical tests, they flew to India, where a gang conducted an operation on Hazrat and removed one of his kidneys.

Later, Hazrat returned home and got Tk 2.50 lakh, said the OC.

On Thursday night, a police team, on secret information, raided Teliher village in Shakhaher union and arrested Rahim, an active member of the trafficking gang, said the police official.

The following day, the arrestee was produced before a court that sent him to the district jail, said Mehedi.

The gang mainly motivate destitute people to donate kidney in exchange for high amount of money, he said.

The evil practice has also been going on in Kalai upazila of Joypurhat district for long, said the official.

They will continue such raid to arrest some other active members of the gang, the OC added.