Organ trafficking: Kochi police SIT reaches Tamil Nadu for further investigation

Kochi: The Kochi Police Special Investigation Team probing illegal organ harvesting from people, including Malayalis, arrived in Tamil Nadu on Sunday after recording the arrest of two persons. Manorama News reported that the SIT had gone to the neighboring state to trace the officers as well as the victims after receiving a tip-off.

Kochi police have launched a probe into international organ trafficking after arresting Sabith Nasar, an agent who lured people from Kerala, Bengaluru and Hyderabad to donate their organs by offering thousands of dollars. The investigation team will examine Sabith's financial transactions to identify people in his network.

According to police, Sabith admitted to trafficking around 20 people to Iran as organ donors while he worked there. He claimed that this was not done directly but through a man from Hyderabad. In his statement to the police, he confirmed that all the victims were from Hyderabad and Bengaluru, except one person from Kerala's north Palakkad district. The police source said they had no further information about the person from Palakkad who was allegedly a victim of the organ trafficking mafia.

According to the police, the information received indicated that the accused, with an intention to make money, allegedly cheated the victims into trafficking them after convincing them that they would receive legal compensation for donating their kidneys to the stranger.

He was charged under Section 370 of the IPC (human trafficking) and the Human Organ Transplantation Act, 1994. He was arrested by Nedumbassery police from Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) on May 18 following a tip-off from Central Agencies. His arrest was recorded on May 19.

Meanwhile, the police will approach the court seeking custody of Sajith Shyam who was arrested on Thursday. Sajith was a close associate of Sabith, the investigation team said.
(With PTI inputs)