Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Tuesday arrested six members of an illegal kidney trading racket from the city's Norda and Joypurhat district.

The arrestees were identified as Shahriar Imran Ahmed, 36, of Hobiganj, the mastermind of the gang and his associates Md Mehedi Hasan, 24, of Cumilla; Md Saiful Islam, 28, of Chandpur; Md Abdul Mannan, 45, and Md Tajul Islam, 38, of Joypurhat.

According to the media wing of Rab headquarters, the intelligence branch of the elite force along with a team of RAB-5 and RAB-2 arrested the six accused after conducting drives in Joypurhat district and Dhaka’s Norda area early hours of Tuesday.

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Preliminary interrogation revealed that Imran is the admin of two Facebook pages called ‘Bangladesh Kidney and Liver Patient Medical Service’ and ‘Kidney Liver Medical Service’ and so far, he has smuggled more than a hundred people to neighbouring countries to sell kidneys.

The total number of members of their racket is 15-20 and they are divided into three groups to carry out the entire illegal kidney trading.

The first group of the racket based in Dhaka used to communicate with affluent patients through social media in need of kidney transplantation. The second group identified the poor and needy people in remote areas of the country as per the demand of the first group and brought them to Dhaka by taking advantage of their economic condition and forcing them to become donors for kidney transplantation for money.

Later, patients were made to undergo blood matching and other tests with the kidney donors at various diagnostic centres in Dhaka by the third group. Then, they prepare the victim donors to be sent to India by processing his or her passport, visa and fake documents. Another group in India in mutual connivance with this racket received the victim donors and conducted other activities including hospital documentation, surgery. After completing the transplantation, the victim was sent back to the country through north-eastern border areas.

The arrestees also confessed to embezzling large amounts of money through this illegal trading of Kidneys. They used to charge Tk 15 to 20 lakh from the patients for each kidney transplant. On the other hand, they assured the kidney donor that they would be paid Tk 3 to 4 lakh and would pay Tk 2 lakh in advance.

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Legal steps are underway against the arrestees in this regard, said the release.