Illegal blood supply racket busted, doctor and aide arrested

LUCKNOW : A doctor and his aide were arrested by the UP Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday for allegedly running an illegal blood supply racket in hospitals of Lucknow and adjoining areas. At least 100 units of blood were seized from their possession, said police. The accused smuggled blood from other states like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan at the rate of ₹1,200 per unit and sold it at ₹6,000 per unit. The duo also used to mix saline water in blood to increase the quantity, said officials.

Those arrested were identified as Dr Abhay Pratap Singh and his aide Abhishek Pathak. The accused doctor had done his MBBS course from the King George’s Medical University in 2000 and later completed his MD in transfusion medicine from the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in 2007, said Amitabh Yash, ADG, STF.

“Dr Abhay Pratap Singh is a highly qualified doctor and currently posted at UP University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah. He was associated with several renowned hospitals in the past but apparently got involved in this illegal business of blood to make a quick buck,” said another senior police official.

The doctor and his aide landed in the police net when the UP STF was tracking the links of five people arrested for operating a blood supply racket on October 26, 2018. The doctor was taken into custody from Agra-Lucknow expressway toll plaza and 45 units of blood were seized from his SUV while his aide was arrested from his flat in Awadh Vihar later. The remaining 55 units of blood were recovered from a fridge in the flat, added the official.

The official said the doctor initially claimed that he had proper papers for the blood supply from different blood banks and kept on misleading the STF team for a few hours, but it was later discovered that all papers produced by him were forged.

He said the doctor even used to organize blood donation camps in Lucknow to pose that he had collected the blood through these. The accused and his aide were booked under multiple IPC sections of fraud and forgery in an FIR registered against them at Sushant Golf City police station.